1
|
Brunk CF, Marshall CR. Opinion: The Key Steps in the Origin of Life to the Formation of the Eukaryotic Cell. Life (Basel) 2024; 14:226. [PMID: 38398735 PMCID: PMC10890422 DOI: 10.3390/life14020226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2023] [Revised: 01/16/2024] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
The path from life's origin to the emergence of the eukaryotic cell was long and complex, and as such it is rarely treated in one publication. Here, we offer a sketch of this path, recognizing that there are points of disagreement and that many transitions are still shrouded in mystery. We assume life developed within microchambers of an alkaline hydrothermal vent system. Initial simple reactions were built into more sophisticated reflexively autocatalytic food-generated networks (RAFs), laying the foundation for life's anastomosing metabolism, and eventually for the origin of RNA, which functioned as a genetic repository and as a catalyst (ribozymes). Eventually, protein synthesis developed, leading to life's biology becoming dominated by enzymes and not ribozymes. Subsequent enzymatic innovation included ATP synthase, which generates ATP, fueled by the proton gradient between the alkaline vent flux and the acidic sea. This gradient was later internalized via the evolution of the electron transport chain, a preadaptation for the subsequent emergence of the vent creatures from their microchamber cradles. Differences between bacteria and archaea suggests cellularization evolved at least twice. Later, the bacterial development of oxidative phosphorylation and the archaeal development of proteins to stabilize its DNA laid the foundation for the merger that led to the formation of eukaryotic cells.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Clifford F. Brunk
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA
| | - Charles R. Marshall
- Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-4780, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Lopez A, Vauchez A, Ajram G, Shvetsova A, Leveau G, Fiore M, Strazewski P. From the RNA-Peptide World: Prebiotic Reaction Conditions Compatible with Lipid Membranes for the Formation of Lipophilic Random Peptides in the Presence of Short Oligonucleotides, and More. Life (Basel) 2024; 14:108. [PMID: 38255723 PMCID: PMC10817532 DOI: 10.3390/life14010108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2023] [Revised: 12/25/2023] [Accepted: 01/05/2024] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Deciphering the origins of life on a molecular level includes unravelling the numerous interactions that could occur between the most important biomolecules being the lipids, peptides and nucleotides. They were likely all present on the early Earth and all necessary for the emergence of cellular life. In this study, we intended to explore conditions that were at the same time conducive to chemical reactions critical for the origins of life (peptide-oligonucleotide couplings and templated ligation of oligonucleotides) and compatible with the presence of prebiotic lipid vesicles. For that, random peptides were generated from activated amino acids and analysed using NMR and MS, whereas short oligonucleotides were produced through solid-support synthesis, manually deprotected and purified using HPLC. After chemical activation in prebiotic conditions, the resulting mixtures were analysed using LC-MS. Vesicles could be produced through gentle hydration in similar conditions and observed using epifluorescence microscopy. Despite the absence of coupling or ligation, our results help to pave the way for future investigations on the origins of life that may gather all three types of biomolecules rather than studying them separately, as it is still too often the case.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Augustin Lopez
- Laboratoire de Chimie Organique 2 (LCO2), Institut de Chimie et Biochimie Moléculaires et Supramoléculaires (ICBMS, UMR CNRS 5246), Bâtiment Edgar Lederer, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 1 rue Victor Grignard, 69100 Villeurbanne, France (M.F.)
| | - Antoine Vauchez
- Centre Commun de la Spectrométrie de Masse (CCSM), ICBMS, Bâtiment Edgar Lederer, 1 rue Victor Grignard, 69100 Villeurbanne, France;
| | - Ghinwa Ajram
- Laboratoire de Chimie Organique 2 (LCO2), Institut de Chimie et Biochimie Moléculaires et Supramoléculaires (ICBMS, UMR CNRS 5246), Bâtiment Edgar Lederer, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 1 rue Victor Grignard, 69100 Villeurbanne, France (M.F.)
| | - Anastasiia Shvetsova
- Laboratoire de Chimie Organique 2 (LCO2), Institut de Chimie et Biochimie Moléculaires et Supramoléculaires (ICBMS, UMR CNRS 5246), Bâtiment Edgar Lederer, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 1 rue Victor Grignard, 69100 Villeurbanne, France (M.F.)
| | - Gabrielle Leveau
- Laboratoire de Chimie Organique 2 (LCO2), Institut de Chimie et Biochimie Moléculaires et Supramoléculaires (ICBMS, UMR CNRS 5246), Bâtiment Edgar Lederer, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 1 rue Victor Grignard, 69100 Villeurbanne, France (M.F.)
| | - Michele Fiore
- Laboratoire de Chimie Organique 2 (LCO2), Institut de Chimie et Biochimie Moléculaires et Supramoléculaires (ICBMS, UMR CNRS 5246), Bâtiment Edgar Lederer, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 1 rue Victor Grignard, 69100 Villeurbanne, France (M.F.)
| | - Peter Strazewski
- Laboratoire de Chimie Organique 2 (LCO2), Institut de Chimie et Biochimie Moléculaires et Supramoléculaires (ICBMS, UMR CNRS 5246), Bâtiment Edgar Lederer, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 1 rue Victor Grignard, 69100 Villeurbanne, France (M.F.)
| |
Collapse
|