There are two fundamentally distinct but inextricably linked types of biological evolutionary units, reproducers and replicators. Reproducers are cells and organelles that reproduce via various forms of division and maintain the physical continuity of compartments and their content. Replicators are genetic elements (GE), including genomes of cellular organisms and various autonomous elements, that both cooperate with reproducers and rely on the latter for replication. All known cells and organisms comprise a union between replicators and reproducers. We explore a model in which cells emerged via symbiosis between primordial metabolic reproducers (protocells) which evolved, on short time scales, via a primitive form of selection and random drift, and mutualist replicators. Mathematical modeling identifies the conditions, under which GE-carrying protocells can outcompete GE-less ones, taking into account that, from the earliest stages of evolution, replicators split into mutualists and parasites. Analysis of the model shows that, for the GE-containing protocells to win the competition and to be fixed in evolution, it is essential that the replication rate of the GE is coordinated with the rate of protocell division. At the early stages of evolution, random, high-variance cell division is advantageous compared to symmetrical division because the former provides for the emergence of protocells containing only mutualists, preventing takeover by parasites. These findings illuminate the likely order of key events on the evolutionary route from protocells to cells that involved the origin of genomes, symmetrical cell division and anti-parasite defense systems.

There are two fundamentally distinct but inextricably linked types of biological evolutionary units, reproducers and replicators. Reproducers are cells and organelles that reproduce via various forms of division and maintain the physical continuity of compartments and their content. Replicators are genetic elements (GE), including genomes of cellular organisms and various autonomous elements, that both cooperate with reproducers and rely on the latter for replication. All known cells and organisms comprise a union between replicators and reproducers. We explore a model in which cells emerged via symbiosis between primordial “metabolic” reproducers (protocells) which evolved, on short time scales, via a primitive form of selection and random drift, and mutualist replicators. Mathematical modeling identifies the conditions, under which GE-carrying protocells can outcompete GE-less ones, taking into account that, from the earliest stages of evolution, replicators split into mutualists and parasites. Analysis of the model shows that, for the GE-containing protocells to win the competition and to be fixed in evolution, it is essential that the birth–death process of the GE is coordinated with the rate of protocell division. At the early stages of evolution, random, high-variance cell division is advantageous compared with symmetrical division because the former provides for the emergence of protocells containing only mutualists, preventing takeover by parasites. These findings illuminate the likely order of key events on the evolutionary route from protocells to cells that involved the origin of genomes, symmetrical cell division, and antiparasite defense systems.