The role of accuracy for early stages of the origin of life

The role of accuracy in developing stages in the origin of life is investigated by mathematical models. Errors yield difficult stability problems in a description of a cooperative system with information-carriers (genes) and catalytic polymers (enzymes) that are related to each other. This problem is highly relevant for a proper understanding of the RNA world. The model that is treated takes two relevant error effects, which can be coupled, into account. One is the occurrence of parasites, inactive genes that are efficiently reproduced by the catalytic support of other polymers but which do not give rise to any catalytic activity. The other is an error propagation due to the fact that erroneous catalysts will provide an increased error level and thus more erroneous catalysts which may lead to still increasing error levels, eventually an error catastrophe.