The Noether theorem establishes that symmetries in physics correspond to conservation laws, and therefore contra-positively that un-conserved quantities correspond to broken symmetries. This theorem was not established for dynamic systems in discrete space and discrete time, but the author in previous work has observed that replication of published cellular automata (CA) loop structures corresponds to chiral asymmetries. The work described here shows that replication of a different kind of CA replicator (the HighLife replicator of Nathan Thompson, 1994) corresponds to loss and restoration of a line of symmetry in each replication cycle. In addition to my past observations of loop replication chirality, the broken symmetry observed in the achiral replication of the achiral Thompson replicator suggests a hypothetical general principle of a correspondence between replication observed as an un-conserved (increasing) number of replicator instances and a range of broken symmetries. The paper concludes with some speculation about the possible relevance of simple CA replicators to proto-biology.