Generic properties of dynamical models of protocells

Models are of great importance for protocell research, not only for the usual reasons why models matter, but also because real protocells are not yet available in the lab. There are indeed some cases where one or a few duplications have been achieved (Hanczyc and Szostak 2004; Luisi et al. 2004; Luisi 2006; Stano et al. 2006; Schrum et al. 2010; Stano and Luisi 2010a) but so far, to the best of our knowledge, a sustained growth of a population of protocells has never been observed.