autocatalysis

A chemical reaction is autocatalytic if one of the reaction products is also a catalyst for the same reaction. Many forms of autocatalysis are recognized.

A set of chemical reactions can be said to be "collectively autocatalytic" if a number of those reactions produce, as reaction products, catalysts for enough of the other reactions that the entire set of chemical reactions is self-sustaining given an input of energy and food molecules (see autocatalytic set).