scholarly journals Investigating Prebiotic Protocells for a Comprehensive Understanding of the Origins of Life: A Prebiotic Systems Chemistry Perspective

Life ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustin Lopez ◽  
Michele Fiore
Keyword(s):  
Thin Films ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Chemical Compounds ◽  
Origins Of Life ◽  
Supramolecular Systems ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Giant Vesicles ◽  
Relevant Concept ◽  
Systems Chemistry ◽  
Emergence Of Life

Protocells are supramolecular systems commonly used for numerous applications, such as the formation of self-evolvable systems, in systems chemistry and synthetic biology. Certain types of protocells imitate plausible prebiotic compartments, such as giant vesicles, that are formed with the hydration of thin films of amphiphiles. These constructs can be studied to address the emergence of life from a non-living chemical network. They are useful tools since they offer the possibility to understand the mechanisms underlying any living cellular system: Its formation, its metabolism, its replication and its evolution. Protocells allow the investigation of the synergies occurring in a web of chemical compounds. This cooperation can explain the transition between chemical (inanimate) and biological systems (living) due to the discoveries of emerging properties. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of relevant concept in prebiotic protocell research.

scholarly journals Prebiotic chemistry: a new modus operandi

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1580) ◽  
pp. 2870-2877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew W. Powner ◽  
John D. Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Rna World ◽  
Origins Of Life ◽  
Geochemical Conditions ◽  
Systems Chemistry ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Sequential Addition ◽  
World Hypothesis ◽  
Emergence Of Life

A variety of macromolecules and small molecules—(oligo)nucleotides, proteins, lipids and metabolites—are collectively considered essential to early life. However, previous schemes for the origin of life—e.g. the ‘RNA world’ hypothesis—have tended to assume the initial emergence of life based on one such molecular class followed by the sequential addition of the others, rather than the emergence of life based on a mixture of all the classes of molecules. This view is in part due to the perceived implausibility of multi-component reaction chemistry producing such a mixture. The concept of systems chemistry challenges such preconceptions by suggesting the possibility of molecular synergism in complex mixtures. If a systems chemistry method to make mixtures of all the classes of molecules considered essential for early life were to be discovered, the significant conceptual difficulties associated with pure RNA, protein, lipid or metabolism ‘worlds’ would be alleviated. Knowledge of the geochemical conditions conducive to the chemical origins of life is crucial, but cannot be inferred from a planetary sciences approach alone. Instead, insights from the organic reactivity of analytically accessible chemical subsystems can inform the search for the relevant geochemical conditions. If the common set of conditions under which these subsystems work productively, and compatibly, matches plausible geochemistry, an origins of life scenario can be inferred. Using chemical clues from multiple subsystems in this way is akin to triangulation, and constitutes a novel approach to discover the circumstances surrounding the transition from chemistry to biology. Here, we exemplify this strategy by finding common conditions under which chemical subsystems generate nucleotides and lipids in a compatible and potentially synergistic way. The conditions hint at a post-meteoritic impact origin of life scenario.

scholarly journals Spatial localisation meets biomolecular networks

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Govind Menon ◽  
J. Krishnan
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Pattern Formation ◽  
Circuit Design ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Temporal Networks ◽  
Spatial Organisation ◽  
Biomolecular Networks ◽  
Systems Chemistry ◽  
Spatial Localisation ◽  
Systems Framework

AbstractSpatial organisation through localisation/compartmentalisation of species is a ubiquitous but poorly understood feature of cellular biomolecular networks. Current technologies in systems and synthetic biology (spatial proteomics, imaging, synthetic compartmentalisation) necessitate a systematic approach to elucidating the interplay of networks and spatial organisation. We develop a systems framework towards this end and focus on the effect of spatial localisation of network components revealing its multiple facets: (i) As a key distinct regulator of network behaviour, and an enabler of new network capabilities (ii) As a potent new regulator of pattern formation and self-organisation (iii) As an often hidden factor impacting inference of temporal networks from data (iv) As an engineering tool for rewiring networks and network/circuit design. These insights, transparently arising from the most basic considerations of networks and spatial organisation, have broad relevance in natural and engineered biology and in related areas such as cell-free systems, systems chemistry and bionanotechnology.

Can Synthetic Biology Shed Light on the Origins of Life?

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Malaterre
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Origins Of Life ◽  
Shed Light

scholarly journals Conceptualizing the origin of life in terms of evolution

2017 ◽  
Vol 375 (2109) ◽  
pp. 20160346 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Takeuchi ◽  
P. Hogeweg ◽  
K. Kaneko
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Origins Of Life ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Chemical System ◽  
Crucial Question ◽  
Opinion Piece ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Emergence Of Life

In this opinion piece, we discuss how to place evolution in the context of origin-of-life research. Our discussion starts with a popular definition: ‘life is a self-sustained chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution’. According to this definition, the origin of life is the same as the origin of evolution: evolution is the ‘end’ of the origin of life. This perspective, however, has a limitation, in that the ability of evolution in and of itself is insufficient to explain the origin of life as we know it, as indicated by Spiegelman’s and Lincoln and Joyce’s experiments. This limitation provokes a crucial question: What conditions are required for replicating systems to evolve into life? From this perspective, the origin of life includes the emergence of life through evolution: evolution is a ‘means’ of the origin of life. After reviewing Eigen’s pioneering work on this question, we mention our ongoing work suggesting that a key condition might be conflicting multi-level evolution. Taken together, there are thus two questions regarding the origin of life: how evolution gets started, and how evolution produces life. Evolution is, therefore, at the centre of the origin of life, where the two lines of enquiry must meet. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Reconceptualizing the origins of life’.

Supramolecular systems chemistry

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elio Mattia ◽  
Sijbren Otto
Keyword(s):  
Supramolecular Systems ◽  
Systems Chemistry

scholarly journals Membraneless polyester microdroplets as primordial compartments at the origins of life

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (32) ◽  
pp. 15830-15835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Z. Jia ◽  
Kuhan Chandru ◽  
Yayoi Hongo ◽  
Rehana Afrin ◽  
Tomohiro Usui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Evolution ◽  
Protein Function ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Fluorescent Dyes ◽  
Origins Of Life ◽  
Last Universal Common Ancestor ◽  
Biomolecular Systems ◽  
Chemical Systems ◽  
Universal Common Ancestor ◽  
Emergence Of Life

Compartmentalization was likely essential for primitive chemical systems during the emergence of life, both for preventing leakage of important components, i.e., genetic materials, and for enhancing chemical reactions. Although life as we know it uses lipid bilayer-based compartments, the diversity of prebiotic chemistry may have enabled primitive living systems to start from other types of boundary systems. Here, we demonstrate membraneless compartmentalization based on prebiotically available organic compounds, α-hydroxy acids (αHAs), which are generally coproduced along with α-amino acids in prebiotic settings. Facile polymerization of αHAs provides a model pathway for the assembly of combinatorially diverse primitive compartments on early Earth. We characterized membraneless microdroplets generated from homo- and heteropolyesters synthesized from drying solutions of αHAs endowed with various side chains. These compartments can preferentially and differentially segregate and compartmentalize fluorescent dyes and fluorescently tagged RNA, providing readily available compartments that could have facilitated chemical evolution by protecting, exchanging, and encapsulating primitive components. Protein function within and RNA function in the presence of certain droplets is also preserved, suggesting the potential relevance of such droplets to various origins of life models. As a lipid amphiphile can also assemble around certain droplets, this further shows the droplets’ potential compatibility with and scaffolding ability for nascent biomolecular systems that could have coexisted in complex chemical systems. These model compartments could have been more accessible in a “messy” prebiotic environment, enabling the localization of a variety of protometabolic and replication processes that could be subjected to further chemical evolution before the advent of the Last Universal Common Ancestor.

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