What Wilhelm Ostwald meant by "Autokatalyse" and its significance to origins-of-life research: Facilitating the search for chemical pathways underlying abiogenesis by reviving Ostwald’s thought that reactants may also be autocatalysts
Date
2022-07-13Author
Peng, Zhen
Paschek, Klaus
Xavier, Joana C.
Publisher
WILEY Periodicals LLC
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
A closer look at Wilhelm Ostwald’s articles that originally proposed the concept of autocatalysis reveals that he accepted reactants, not just products, as potential autocatalysts. Therefore, that a process is catalyzed by some of its products, which is the common definition of autocatalysis, is only a proper subset of what Ostwald meant by “Autokatalyse”. As a result, it is necessary to reconsider the definition of autocatalysis, which is especially important for origins-of-life research because autocatalysis provides an abiotic mechanism that yields reproduction-like dynamics. Here, we translate and briefly review the two key publications on autocatalysis by Ostwald to revive his understanding of autocatalysis. Then we discuss the significance of such a revival from two aspects: first, facilitating the search for candidate processes underlying the origins of life, and second, updating our view of autocatalysis in metabolism.
Subject
Autocatalysis
Wilhelm Ostwald
Origins of life
Metabolism
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/83520Description
This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article:
Peng Z, Paschek K, Xavier JC. What Wilhelm Ostwald meant by "Autokatalyse" and its significance to origins-of-life research: Facilitating the search for chemical pathways underlying abiogenesis by reviving Ostwald’s thought that reactants may also be autocatalysts. BioEssays. 2022 Sep;44(9):e2200098. doi: 10.1002/bies.202200098. Epub 2022 Jul 13. PMID: 35832007.
, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202200098. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
If you would like to cite this work, please cite the final version published on BioEssays.
Citation
Peng Z, Paschek K, Xavier JC. What Wilhelm Ostwald meant by "Autokatalyse" and its significance to origins-of-life research: Facilitating the search for chemical pathways underlying abiogenesis by reviving Ostwald’s thought that reactants may also be autocatalysts. BioEssays. 2022 Sep;44(9):e2200098. doi: 10.1002/bies.202200098. Epub 2022 Jul 13. PMID: 35832007.