Figure 8: Modelling of ribozyme diffusion and replication in the eutectic phase.

(a) Replication and diffusion of parasites (red) and replicases (green) simulated within a lattice space (grey). Yellow represents equal numbers of replicases and parasites. The addition of blocks (black) to the channels of the grid-lattice decreased connectivity. (b) Simulation outcomes (after 20,000 time steps; n≥50). If blocks are <30, parasites invariably drove replicases to extinction under these simulation conditions. (c) The replicase success promoted by lattice blocks is maintained over a range of starting parasite/replicase ratios (n≥100) and is increasingly robust at higher lattice fragmentation (open space, blue diamonds; just lattice, yellow triangles; 60 blocks, orange triangles; 140 blocks, red triangles). (d) Resistance to parasite takeover (the relative chance of replicase success after introduction of one parasite per replicase) is less affected by a threefold increase in parasite diffusion speed (blue bars to red bars) when lattice fragmentation increases.