Breslow proposed a mechanism by which GA can be created by an autocatalytic cycle, which would place GA in a central location as an enabling molecule of the FR, though other mechanisms might enable the production of GA (Figure ). The condensation and polymerization of GA produces tetroses, pentoses, hexoses, heptoses and octoses, along with larger molecules, all of which may act as reactants for numerous new reactions . The GA-initiated cycle is likely but one of many autocatalytic reactions which wax and wane as reactant concentrations change during the course of the reaction. The autocatalytic cycles described by Breslow and Huskey and Epstein are likely only snapshots of how the reaction proceeds.