As expected, for case (i) the mutational distance is independent of whether replication involves surface binding, because replication is governed solely by statistics in both instances (Figure ). For case (ii), the mutational distance from the A6B0 seed is reduced upon replication from surface-bound material, compared to the control without surface binding, but this difference becomes smaller as replication progresses (Figure ). For case (iii) the A6B0 and A0B6 seeds initially grew with almost no mutations, but as those begin to occur they tend to propagate and the mutational distance to the seed increased, even thought it was still significantly smaller than the mutational distance in the control (Figure ). For case (iv) replication seeded with A3B3 fibers proceeded with a small mutational distance (Figure ), albeit somewhat larger than for the control, in line with the lower error rate of the latter (Figure ). The low mutational distance may be explained by the tendency to form A4B2-A2B4 repeat patterns (Figure ) which feature replicator mutants that have a relatively small mutational distance to the A3B3 seed. In conclusion, for cases (ii) and (iii) the selective binding of precursors to fiber sides reduces the rate at which replicators mutate away from their original composition.