Co-spread of the ribozymes in a larger scale system.

<p>The characteristic domain for a ribozyme or the control RNA species is a stem-loop “X₈∼X₁LLLLY₁∼Y₈”, i.e., the domain has a length of 20 nucleotides. Nucleotide precursors (dots) are represented in a 1/400 scale relative to the number of the ribozymes (e.g., 400 denotes 1.6×10⁵). The manner of inoculating ribozymes (/protocells) and the figure symbols are the same as those used in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0035454#pone-0035454-g003" target="_blank">Fig. 3</a>. For the naked stage (<b>a</b>), <i>T_NPB</i> = 1.6×10⁵, <i>P_NDE</i> = 5×10⁻⁵, <i>P_AT</i> = 0.3, <i>P_FP</i> = 5×10⁻³, <i>P_FLR</i> = 0.05, and the values of the other parameters are the same as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0035454#pone-0035454-g003" target="_blank">Fig. 3a</a>. For the pseudo-protocell substage (<b>b</b>) and the true-protocell substage (<b>c</b>), <i>T_NPB</i> = 1.6×10⁵, <i>L_AM</i> = 600, <i>P_NDE</i> = 5×10⁻⁵, <i>P_AT</i> = 0.3, <i>P_FP</i> = 5×10⁻³, <i>P_FLR</i> = 0.05, <i>P_MV</i> = 0.5, <i>P_ADM</i> = 5×10⁻⁵, <i>P_ALM</i> = 5×10⁻⁵, <i>P_NPP</i> = 0.1, <i>P_APP</i> = 0.2, <i>P_CB</i> = 5×10⁻⁶, <i>P_CF</i> = 1×10⁻⁴, <i>P_CD</i> = 0.01, <i>P_MC</i> = 0.05, <i>F_SI</i> = 2, and the values of the other parameters are the same as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0035454#pone-0035454-g003" target="_blank">Fig. 3b and c</a>.