Catalytic promiscuity in the RNA World may have aided the evolution of prebiotic metabolism
Fig 8
Promiscuity patterns of coexistence.
The distribution of replicators under the trade-off surface of enzymatic activities after 50 000 generations at A = 3 and g = 1. Axes are scales of the three different enzymatic activities. Size and colour of dots represent the frequency of replicator groups with a certain enzymatic activity pattern. (A) a system dominated by specialists (b = 1.1, D = 5, kmax = 2.0, Nmet = 5), (B) a system dominated by two-activity generalists (b = 1.5, D = 5, kmax = 2.5, Nmet = 5), (C) a system dominated by three-activity generalists (b = 1.6, D = 0, kmax = 2.0, Nmet = 5). On (D) a two-activity generalist type and its complementary specialist dominate the system (b = 1.4, D = 5, kmax = 2.0, Nmet = 5).