Figure 2

Compositions and types of reproducing protocells for (I) D = 1, (II) D = 0.1, and (III) D = 0.01. Compositions of molecule species are shown in successive 200 division events in the system with K _M =K _R . (i) At successive division events (abscissa), molecule species indices with more than 20 copy numbers in the dividing cell are marked. Cells are categorized into a few, or, several types, indicated by different colors, according to the majority set of molecule species. For each type, the indices of majority species are shown to the right of the figures. (ii)The catalytic network formed by the majority molecule species is shown for each cell type. Each numbered node corresponds to a molecule species, and the arrow from index i to j represents catalysis of X _j replication by X _i . (iii) Similarities H _ij between cells i and j, as defined in the text, are plotted over 200 successive division events, using a color code from H _ij ∼1(red) to H _ij ∼0(dark blue). If the similarity is close to one, the composition is almost preserved by cell division, while zero similarity indicates that a reproduced cell has completely different composition. Intermediate values of similarity indicate the overlap in some molecule species between the cells, as in Type II-A and -B, Type III-A and -B, and Type III-D and -E. Parameters are K _M =K _R =200, M _tot=100, N=1000, and μ=0.001