Organic Aerosols and the Origin of Life: An Hypothesis

Abstract

Abstract. Recent experimental work has verified the prediction that marine aerosols could have an exterior film of amphiphiles; palmitic, stearic and oleic acids were predominant. Thermodynamic analysis has revealed that such aerosols are energetically capable of asymmetric division. In a prebiotic terrestrial environment, one of the products of such aerosol fission would have been bacterially sized (microns), the other would have been virally sized (tens of nanometers). Plausible avenues for chemical differentiation between the two particles are discussed, and the probabilities for the transition from geochemistry to biochemistry updated in light of recent palaeo fossil studies.

Synthetic biology projects in vitro

“…Fortunately, in vitro SBPs extend more broadly than lipid-bilayers, as membranous boundaries are neither necessary nor sufficient to ensure homogenous distribution of macromolecular contents. For example, segregation and selection like that found in cells (Wang et al 2004) can be achieved with viruses, protoplasm (Kim et al 2001), macromolecular complexes (Dower and Mattheakis 2002), emulsions (Griffiths and Tawfik 2000;Noireaux and Libchaber 2004), aerosols (Donaldson et al 2004), biofilms, par- Figure 2. Genetic selections using double emulsion compartments and a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS).…”

Serinoctamere: Clusterbildung, Reaktionen und Auswirkungen auf die Homochiralität von Biomolekülen

“…Präbiotische Aerosole wurden anfangs als bevorzugte Umgebungen für Prozesse angesehen, die für die Entstehung des Lebens von Bedeutung sein sollten. [97][98][99][100] Vor allem mikrometergroße Vesikel mit einer organischen Hülle und einer wässrigen Lösung im Inneren, wie sie in Aerosolen vorliegen, [97,98] wurden als geeignete Reaktionsräume für präbiotische Reaktionen wie Oligomerisierungen vorge- schlagen. [98,99] In jedem Aerosoltröpfchen steigt die Konzentration der Reagentien (Solute) durch das Verdunsten von Wasser; dies wiederum treibt Reaktionen nach dem Prinzip von Le Chatelier an.…”

In situ observation of peptide bond formation at the water–air interface

“…The air-water interface (atmospheric aerosols in particular) has previously been proposed to be important in prebiotic chemistry (11)(12)(13)(14) because it provides a unique environment for chemistry through its ability to concentrate and align biochemical precursors and to alter the state of ionization of surface species (15)(16)(17)(18)(19). Contemporary marine aerosols have been found to contain the amino acid precursors necessary for peptide bond chemistry (20), enabling the possibility for their use in such reactions.…”