New advances in natural abiogenesis

[shunyadragon]

Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/03/17/1021002/lightning-strikes-origin-life-astrobiology/

How lightning strikes could explain the origin of life—on Earth and elsewhere

A new study suggests that lightning helps make an essential element available to organisms in habitable environments.JOHANNES PLENIO/PEXELS
The search for life on other planets is a lot like cooking. (Bear with me for a second.) You can have all the ingredients in one place—water, a warm climate and thick atmosphere, the proper nutrients, organic material, and a source of energy—but if you don’t have any processes or conditions that can actually do something with those ingredients, you’ve just got a bunch of raw materials going nowhere.

So sometimes, life needs a spark of inspiration—or maybe several trillion of them. A new study published in Nature Communications suggests lightning may have been a key component in making phosphorus available for organisms to use when life on Earth first appeared by about 3.5 billion years ago. Phosphorus is essential for making DNA, RNA, ATP (the energy source of all known life), and other biological components like cell membranes.

“This study was actually a lucky discovery,” says Benjamin Hess, a Yale University researcher and lead author of the new paper. “It opens up new possibilities for finding life on Earth-like planets.”

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[shunyadragon]

Of course the problems and steps of natural processes of how abiogenesis took place are far from resolved. What the goals of science is at present trying to resolve is the necessary steps that could lead to the formation of the earliest forms of life How self replication could take is a key process that needed to resolved. The following is a step in resolving this.

Source: https://www.genengnews.com/news/self-replicating-droplets-developed-as-missing-link-for-origins-of-life-on-earth/

Self-Replicating Droplets Developed as Missing Link for Origins of Life on Earth

September 28, 2021



The missing link that helps to explain the origins of life may not be an as-yet-undiscovered fossil, but rather, could be embodied in a tiny, self-replicating globule called a coacervate droplet, which researchers in Japan have developed to represent the evolution of chemistry into biology.

. . .

The researchers described how they designed and synthesized a prebiotic monomer from amino acid derivatives, as a precursor to the self-assembly of primitive cells. When added to room temperature water at atmospheric pressure, the amino acid derivatives condensed, arranging into peptides, which then spontaneously formed droplets. The droplets grew in size and in number when fed with more amino acids. “ … we identify conditions suitable for concurrent peptide generation and self-assembly, and we show how a proliferating peptide-based droplet could be created by using synthesized amino acid thioesters as prebiotic monomers,” they wrote. “Oligopeptides generated from the monomers spontaneously formed droplets through liquid–liquid phase separation in water. The droplets underwent a steady growth–division cycle by periodic addition of monomers through autocatalytic self-reproduction.” team of Japanese scientists found the missing link between chemistry and biology in the origins of life. [Hiroshima University]Importantly, the researchers found that the droplets could concentrate nucleic acids, and they were more likely to survive against external stimuli if they exhibited this function. “A droplet-based protocell could have served as a link between ‘chemistry’ and ‘biology’ during the origins of life,” Matsuo noted. “This study may serve to explain the emergence of the first living organisms on primordial Earth.”

And by constructing peptide droplets that proliferate with feeding on novel amino acid derivatives, “we have experimentally elucidated the long-standing mystery of how prebiotic ancestors were able to proliferate and survive by selectively concentrating prebiotic chemicals,” Matsuo continued. “Rather than an RNA world, we found that ‘droplet world’ may be a more accurate description, as our results suggest that droplets became evolvable molecular aggregates—one of which became our common ancestor.”

The researchers concluded in their paper, “… these proliferating droplets composed of peptides could have served as containers to integrate RNA, lipids, and peptides during the early history of Earth because the droplets not only incorporated nucleic acids and lipids but also acquired the ability to survive by accelerating interactions among these constituents … In summary, because the process of evolution from amino acid thioesters to primitive living things could be realized by the concentration of RNA, lipids, and peptides inside a proliferating droplet and a subsequent expression of a biological-like function, it seems appropriate to call this scenario the ‘droplet world hypothesis’.”

The researchers plan to continue investigating the process of evolution from amino acid derivatives to primitive living cells, as well as improve their platform to verify and study the origins of life and continued evolution.

© Copyright Original Source

[lee_merrill]

Of course the problems and steps of natural processes of how abiogenesis took place are far from resolved.

Agreed.

How self replication could take is a key process that needed to resolved. The following is a step in resolving this.

I disagree, replication is not described here, rather adding monomers produced more droplets, which would likely not be duplicates.

Blessings,
Lee

[shunyadragon]

I disagree, replication is not described here, rather adding monomers produced more droplets, which would likely not be duplicates.

Blessings,
Lee

Disagree as you may, but the source as cited stands. Your simplistic response does not reflect the conclusions of the research. Please address the research it self. The source describes a primitive form of replication of monomers that could be an early step to more complex forms of replication.

From source . . .

"The researchers described how they designed and synthesized a prebiotic monomer from amino acid derivatives, as a precursor to the self-assembly of primitive cells. When added to room temperature water at atmospheric pressure, the amino acid derivatives condensed, arranging into peptides, which then spontaneously formed droplets. The droplets grew in size and in number when fed with more amino acids. “ …

[shunyadragon]

The following discovery represents another important key to the role of metal binding proteins formation in the ancient environments Metals have long been considered playing a role in abiogenesis such as the role of iron pyrites as catalysts in the early steps of RNA formation.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220114153440.htm

New study sheds light on origins of life on Earth

Researchers explored the evolution of metal-binding proteins across billions of years

Date:January 14, 2022Source:Rutgers UniversitySummary:Addressing one of the most profoundly unanswered questions in biology, a team has discovered the structures of proteins that may be responsible for the origins of life in the primordial soup of ancient Earth.Share:

© Copyright Original Source

See reference for the longer version.

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Addressing one of the most profoundly unanswered questions in biology, a Rutgers-led team has discovered the structures of proteins that may be responsible for the origins of life in the primordial soup of ancient Earth.

[shunyadragon]

The following is not anything new, but provides a good description of the different categories of hypothesis on the origins of life.

The present view of origins consider the place of origin to be the ocean vents of Mid ocean ridges that form with continental drift. Te potential sources of the chemistry, energy source, and the environment are discussed It is considered that the surface and and the seas were too hostile environments for the first life to have formed. The first evidence of primitive life forms are found relatively shortly after continental drift began,

Source: https://vervetimes.com/7-theories-on-the-origin-of-life/

Life on Earth began more than 3 billion years ago, evolving from the most basic of microbes into a dazzling array of complexity over time. But how did the first organisms on the only known home to life in the universe develop from the primordial soup?

It started with an electric spark

Electric sparks can generate amino acids and sugars from an atmosphere loaded with water, methane, ammonia and hydrogen, as was shown in the famous Miller-Urey experiment reported in 1953, suggesting that lightning might have helped create the key building blocks of life on Earth in its early days. Over millions of years, larger and more complex molecules could form. Although research since then has revealed the early atmosphere of Earth was actually hydrogen-poor, scientists have suggested that volcanic clouds in the early atmosphere might have held methane, ammonia and hydrogen and been filled with lightning as well.

Or could simple clay have fueled life’s beginning? Read on to find out.

Note: First sedimentary deposits that formed clay minerals occur after continental drift began.

Molecules of life met on clay

The first molecules of life might have met on clay, according to an idea elaborated by organic chemist Alexander Graham Cairns-Smith at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. These surfaces might not only have concentrated these organic compounds together, but also helped organize them into patterns much like our genes do now.

The main role of DNA is to store information on how other molecules should be arranged. Genetic sequences in DNA are essentially instructions on how amino acids should be arranged in proteins. Cairns-Smith suggests that mineral crystals in clay could have arranged organic molecules into organized patterns. After a while, organic molecules took over this job and organized themselves.

Life began at deep-sea vents

The deep-sea vent theory suggests that life may have begun at submarine hydrothermal vents spewing key hydrogen-rich molecules. Their rocky nooks could then have concentrated these molecules together and provided mineral catalysts for critical reactions. Even now, these vents, rich in chemical and thermal energy, sustain vibrant ecosystems.

Life had a chilly start

Ice might have covered the oceans 3 billion years ago, as the sun was about a third less luminous than it is now, scientists say. This layer of ice, possibly hundreds of feet thick, might have protected fragile organic compounds in the water below from ultraviolet light and destruction from cosmic impacts. The cold might have also helped these molecules to survive longer, allowing key reactions to happen. [Related: The Ingredients of Life]

Understanding life’s origin may involve unravelling the mystery of DNA’s formation, as we explain next.

The answer lies in understanding DNA formation

Nowadays DNA needs proteins in order to form, and proteins require DNA to form, so how could these have formed without each other? The answer may be RNA, which can store information like DNA, serve as an enzyme like proteins, and help create both DNA and proteins. Later DNA and proteins succeeded this “RNA world,” because they are more efficient.

RNA still exists and performs several functions in organisms, including acting as an on-off switch for some genes. The question still remains how RNA got here in the first place. And while some scientists think the molecule could have spontaneously arisen on Earth, others say that was very unlikely to have happened. Other nucleic acids other than RNA have been suggested as well, such as the more esoteric PNA or TNA.

Life had simple beginnings

Instead of developing from complex molecules such as RNA, life might have begun with smaller molecules interacting with each other in cycles of reactions. These might have been contained in simple capsules akin to cell membranes, and over time more complex molecules that performed these reactions better than the smaller ones could have evolved, scenarios dubbed “metabolism-first” models, as opposed to the “gene-first” model of the “RNA world” hypothesis.

Note: Most unlikely proposal as worded. It is likely that some of material for the origin of life arrived on meteorites.

Life was brought here from elsewhere in space

Perhaps life did not begin on Earth at all, but was brought here from elsewhere in space, a notion known as panspermia. For instance, rocks regularly get blasted off Mars by cosmic impacts, and a number of Martian meteorites have been found on Earth that some researchers have controversially suggested brought microbes over here, potentially making us all Martians originally. Other scientists have even suggested that life might have hitchhiked on comets from other star systems. However, even if this concept were true, the question of how life began on Earth would then only change to how life began elsewhere in space.

© Copyright Original Source

[shunyadragon]

I disagree, replication is not described here, rather adding monomers produced more droplets, which would likely not be duplicates.

Blessings,
Lee

Note: Actually considering they would likely not be duplicates of prebiotic monomers, but only very similar based on the physical processes and the environment they formed. Likewise, reproduction in life forms do not necessarily produce duplicates. The degree pf similarity of prebiotic monomers would be determined by the environment and the chemistry involved. Diversity is one of the keys to success in pre-life chemistry and life itself.

The point is this simple prebiotic monomers, which for abiogenesis to happen it would prebiotic simple forms that develop into the earliest more complex lifeforms.

[lee_merrill]

Likewise, reproduction in life forms do not necessarily produce duplicates.

Cell replication does produce a duplicate, with perhaps a few copying errors.

Blessings,
Lee

[shunyadragon]

Cell replication does produce a duplicate, with perhaps a few copying errors.

Blessings,
Lee

Perhaps a few errors negates an assertion of a duplicate by definition. As in all of nature, ie crystals, copying by natural processes such as environment and chemical make up produces the very close same results.

Reread the article and this is not an issue. In the process of abiogenesis simple forms are necessary first before the advent of life. This research demonstrates the simple replication of .simple prebiotic monomer, which is necessary to take place before complex self replicating microorganisms,

[lee_merrill]

This research demonstrates the simple replication of .simple prebiotic monomer..,

Oh dear, it is droplets that are said to replicate, not monomers.

Blessings,
Lee

[shunyadragon]

Oh dear, it is droplets that are said to replicate, not monomers.

Blessings,
Lee

Not just droplets,

Read again . . .


"The researchers described how they designed and synthesized a prebiotic monomer from amino acid derivatives, as a precursor to the self-assembly of primitive cells. When added to room temperature water at atmospheric pressure, the amino acid derivatives condensed, arranging into peptides, which then spontaneously formed droplets. The droplets grew in size and in number when fed with more amino acids. “ …

[shunyadragon]

Cell replication does produce a duplicate, with perhaps a few copying errors.

Blessings,
Lee

By the way, droplets in any form are very very uniform in any situation in nature based on the environment the droplets occur.

[lee_merrill]

By the way, droplets in any form are very very uniform in any situation in nature based on the environment the droplets occur.

But the content of the droplets is not replicated, is the point.

Blessings,
Lee

[shunyadragon]

But the content of the droplets is not replicated, is the point.

Blessings,
Lee

The primate prebiotic form being able to relicate is the beginning, and of course not yet a living organism. Abiogenesis is a process of steps over time and not non-life suddenly to living organisms. Primitive simple forms are ne a necessary beginning.