  Autocatalytic systems are very often incorporated in the "origin of life"
models, a connection that has been analyzed in the context of the classical
hypercycles introduced by Manfred Eigen. We investigate the dynamics of certain
networks called bimolecular autocatalytic systems. In particular, we consider
the dynamics corresponding to the relative populations in these networks, and
show that they can be analyzed by studying well-chosen autonomous polynomial
dynamical systems. Moreover, we find that one can use results from reaction
network theory to prove persistence and permanence of several types of
bimolecular autocatalytic systems called autocatalytic recombination networks.
