Natural Selection beyond Life? A Workshop Report

Charlat, Sylvain; Ariew, André; Bourrat, Pierrick; Ruiz, María Ferreira; Heams, Thomas; Huneman, Philippe; Krishna, Sandeep; Lachmann, Michael; Lartillot, Nicolas; d’Hendecourt, Louis Le Sergeant; Malaterre, Christophe; Nghe, Philippe; Rajon, Étienne; Rivoire, Olivier; Smerlak, Matteo; Zeravcic, Zorana

doi:10.3390/life11101051

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(81 reference statements)

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“…Vasas et al (2012) discussed this problem and found that the prerequisite for evolvability are chemical reactions networks with multiple viable cores [62]. Although it remains difficult to imagine theoretical autocatalytic sets capable of evolution by natural selection [63], it is assumed here that RNA-based autocatalytic sets have this ability.…”

Section: Autocatalytic Sets-evolution Of Metabolism Without a Genomementioning

confidence: 99%

Genome Evolution from Random Ligation of RNAs of Autocatalytic Sets

Broecker

2021

IJMS

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The evolutionary origin of the genome remains elusive. Here, I hypothesize that its first iteration, the protogenome, was a multi-ribozyme RNA. It evolved, likely within liposomes (the protocells) forming in dry-wet cycling environments, through the random fusion of ribozymes by a ligase and was amplified by a polymerase. The protogenome thereby linked, in one molecule, the information required to seed the protometabolism (a combination of RNA-based autocatalytic sets) in newly forming protocells. If this combination of autocatalytic sets was evolutionarily advantageous, the protogenome would have amplified in a population of multiplying protocells. It likely was a quasispecies with redundant information, e.g., multiple copies of one ribozyme. As such, new functionalities could evolve, including a genetic code. Once one or more components of the protometabolism were templated by the protogenome (e.g., when a ribozyme was replaced by a protein enzyme), and/or addiction modules evolved, the protometabolism became dependent on the protogenome. Along with increasing fidelity of the RNA polymerase, the protogenome could grow, e.g., by incorporating additional ribozyme domains. Finally, the protogenome could have evolved into a DNA genome with increased stability and storage capacity. I will provide suggestions for experiments to test some aspects of this hypothesis, such as evaluating the ability of ribozyme RNA polymerases to generate random ligation products and testing the catalytic activity of linked ribozyme domains.

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Section: Autocatalytic Sets-evolution Of Metabolism Without a Genomementioning

confidence: 99%

Genome Evolution from Random Ligation of RNAs of Autocatalytic Sets

Broecker

2021

IJMS

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“…We argue that it is time to begin experimenting with the long-term effects of the prebiotic natural selection processes that may have aided biotic life to emerge by taming the combinatorial chemical explosion. Little research, especially experimental, has been devoted to this problem [ 13 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Among the challenges has been the fact that most synthetic experiments have been limited to a week or less in duration [ 21 ] so that apparatuses that can explore longer-term experiments are needed such as that described, for example, by Asche et al [ 22 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Apparatuses for Incorporating Natural Selection Processes into Origins-of-Life Experiments to Produce Adaptively Evolving Chemical Ecosystems

Root‐Bernstein

Brown

2022

Life

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Origins-of-life chemical experiments usually aim to produce specific chemical end-products such as amino acids, nucleic acids or sugars. The resulting chemical systems do not evolve or adapt because they lack natural selection processes. We have modified Miller origins-of-life apparatuses to incorporate several natural, prebiotic physicochemical selection factors that can be tested individually or in tandem: freezing-thawing cycles; drying-wetting cycles; ultraviolet light-dark cycles; and catalytic surfaces such as clays or minerals. Each process is already known to drive important origins-of-life chemical reactions such as the production of peptides and synthesis of nucleic acid bases and each can also destroy various reactants and products, resulting selection within the chemical system. No previous apparatus has permitted all of these selection processes to work together. Continuous synthesis and selection of products can be carried out over many months because the apparatuses can be re-gassed. Thus, long-term chemical evolution of chemical ecosystems under various combinations of natural selection may be explored for the first time. We argue that it is time to begin experimenting with the long-term effects of such prebiotic natural selection processes because they may have aided biotic life to emerge by taming the combinatorial chemical explosion that results from unbounded chemical syntheses.

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“…We use "autocatalytic chemical entities" and "compartments" very broadly to encompass all the possibilities described above. For such a system to be considered a population evolving under natural selection [16], it must have certain * yoshiyam@ncbs.res.in properties. Following Godfrey-Smith [17], who analyzes and builds on formulations by Lewontin [18], Endler [19], Ridley [20], and others, we expect the individuals to exhibit:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robustness of compositional heredity to the growth and division dynamics of prebiotic compartments

Matsubara¹,

Ameta²,

Thutupalli³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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An important transition after the origin of life was the first emergence of a Darwinian population, self-reproducing entities exhibiting differential reproduction, phenotypic variation, and inheritance of phenotypic traits. The simplest system we can imagine to have these properties would consist of a compartmentalized autocatalytic reaction system that exhibits two growth states with different chemical compositions. Identifying the chemical composition as the phenotype, this accounts for two of the properties. However, it is not clear what are the necessary conditions for such a chemical system to exhibit inheritance of the compositional states upon growth and division of the compartment. We show that for a general class of autocatalytic chemical systems subject to serial dilution, the inheritance of compositional information only occurs when the time interval between dilutions is below a critical threshold that depends on the efficiency of the catalytic reactions. Further, we show that these thresholds provide rigorous bounds on the properties required for the inheritance of the chemical compositional state for general growth and division cycles. Our result suggests that a serial dilution experiment, which is much easier to set up in a laboratory, can be used to test whether a given autocatalytic chemical system can exhibit heredity. Lastly, we apply our results to a realistic autocatalytic system based on the Azoarcus ribozyme and suggest a protocol to experimentally test whether this system can exhibit heredity.

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Natural Selection beyond Life? A Workshop Report

Cited by 4 publications

References 68 publications

Genome Evolution from Random Ligation of RNAs of Autocatalytic Sets

Genome Evolution from Random Ligation of RNAs of Autocatalytic Sets

Novel Apparatuses for Incorporating Natural Selection Processes into Origins-of-Life Experiments to Produce Adaptively Evolving Chemical Ecosystems

Robustness of compositional heredity to the growth and division dynamics of prebiotic compartments

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