Role for Ferredoxins in the Origin of Life and Biological Evolution

Hall, D.O.; Cammack, Richard; Rao, K. K.

doi:10.1038/233136a0

Cited by 152 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…At the same time, John Baross was exploring the possibility that life arose at hydrothermal vents (Baross and Hoffman 1985), while Norm Pace (1991) was confronting the origin of life community with the concept of thermophilic origins, which made eminent sense to many microbiologists and which furthermore fit well with the older notion that FeS proteins held a clue to life's origins (Eck and Dayhoff 1966;Hall et al 1971), a concept that Günter Wächtershäuser (1992) developed into a more general origins theory in an early evolution context. The hyperthermophiles tended to cluster around the base and deepest branches of the rRNA tree (Stetter 1996), and thus emerged the view of a hot start to life.…”

Section: Hot Debates I: Temperaturementioning

confidence: 90%

Early Microbial Evolution: The Age of Anaerobes

Martin

Sousa

2015

Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

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In this article, the term "early microbial evolution" refers to the phase of biological history from the emergence of life to the diversification of the first microbial lineages. In the modern era (since we knew about archaea), three debates have emerged on the subject that deserve discussion: (1) thermophilic origins versus mesophilic origins, (2) autotrophic origins versus heterotrophic origins, and (3) how do eukaryotes figure into early evolution. Here, we revisit those debates from the standpoint of newer data. We also consider the perhaps more pressing issue that molecular phylogenies need to recover anaerobic lineages at the base of prokaryotic trees, because O 2 is a product of biological evolution; hence, the first microbes had to be anaerobes. If molecular phylogenies do not recover anaerobes basal, something is wrong. Among the anaerobes, hydrogen-dependent autotrophs-acetogens and methanogenslook like good candidates for the ancestral state of physiology in the bacteria and archaea, respectively. New trees tend to indicate that eukaryote cytosolic ribosomes branch within their archaeal homologs, not as sisters to them and, furthermore tend to root archaea within the methanogens. These are major changes in the tree of life, and open up new avenues of thought. Geochemical methane synthesis occurs as a spontaneous, abiotic exergonic reaction at hydrothermal vents. The overall similarity between that reaction and biological methanogenesis fits well with the concept of a methanogenic root for archaea and an autotrophic origin of microbial physiology.

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Section: Hot Debates I: Temperaturementioning

confidence: 90%

Early Microbial Evolution: The Age of Anaerobes

Martin

Sousa

2015

Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

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“…The terms RNA, RNP and DNA era (instead of 'world') are used to emphasize that no nucleic acid evolution is possible without a supporting geochemistry, later biogeochemistry and finally biochemistry to provide a steady flow of adequate concentrations of polymerizeable precursors (for example nucleotides) and thus to underpin any sort of replication. role in early metabolism (Hall et al 1971;Marczak et al 1983), but radically departing from notions of organic soup, electric discharge or photocatalysis for the origin of the first biomolecules, Wächtershäuser (1988a) (2003) catalysis (Wächtershäuser 1988b), this work laid down the case for a chemoautotrophic origin of life, but it is not without its problems. The reduction of CO 2 with an FeS-H 2 S/FeS 2 redox couple was shown to be a far less energetically favourable process than originally suggested by Wächtershäuser (Schoonen et al 1999).…”

Section: Iron Monosulphide: 3d Cells Not Just 2d Surfacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the origins of cells: a hypothesis for the evolutionary transitions from abiotic geochemistry to chemoautotrophic prokaryotes, and from prokaryotes to nucleated cells

Martin

Russell

2003

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

704

621

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All life is organized as cells. Physical compartmentation from the environment and self-organization of self-contained redox reactions are the most conserved attributes of living things, hence inorganic matter with such attributes would be life's most likely forebear. We propose that life evolved in structured iron monosulphide precipitates in a seepage site hydrothermal mound at a redox, pH and temperature gradient between sulphide-rich hydrothermal fluid and iron(II)-containing waters of the Hadean ocean floor. The naturally arising, three-dimensional compartmentation observed within fossilized seepage-site metal sulphide precipitates indicates that these inorganic compartments were the precursors of cell walls and membranes found in free-living prokaryotes. The known capability of FeS and NiS to catalyse the synthesis of the acetyl-methylsulphide from carbon monoxide and methylsulphide, constituents of hydrothermal fluid, indicates that pre-biotic syntheses occurred at the inner surfaces of these metal-sulphide-walled compartments, which furthermore restrained reacted products from diffusion into the ocean, providing sufficient concentrations of reactants to forge the transition from geochemistry to biochemistry. The chemistry of what is known as the RNA-world could have taken place within these naturally forming, catalyticwalled compartments to give rise to replicating systems. Sufficient concentrations of precursors to support replication would have been synthesized in situ geochemically and biogeochemically, with FeS (and NiS) centres playing the central catalytic role. The universal ancestor we infer was not a free-living cell, but rather was confined to the naturally chemiosmotic, FeS compartments within which the synthesis of its constituents occurred. The first free-living cells are suggested to have been eubacterial and archaebacterial chemoautotrophs that emerged more than 3.8 Gyr ago from their inorganic confines. We propose that the emergence of these prokaryotic lineages from inorganic confines occurred independently, facilitated by the independent origins of membrane-lipid biosynthesis: isoprenoid ether membranes in the archaebacterial and fatty acid ester membranes in the eubacterial lineage. The eukaryotes, all of which are ancestrally heterotrophs and possess eubacterial lipids, are suggested to have arisen ca. 2 Gyr ago through symbiosis involving an autotrophic archaebacterial host and a heterotrophic eubacterial symbiont, the common ancestor of mitochondria and hydrogenosomes. The attributes shared by all prokaryotes are viewed as inheritances from their confined universal ancestor. The attributes that distinguish eubacteria and archaebacteria, yet are uniform within the groups, are viewed as relics of their phase of differentiation after divergence from the non-free-living universal ancestor and before the origin of the free-living chemoautotrophic lifestyle. The attributes shared by eukaryotes with eubacteria and archaebacteria, respectively, are viewed as inheritances via symbiosis. The ...

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“…The first is that the first prebiotic catalytic reactions took place on Fe/Ni sulphide particles evolving gradually to autocatalytic systems, and ultimately to the first (pioneer) organisms. The second assumption is that the driving power for all prebiotic processes has been the oxidative formation of pyrite, FeS 2 , by reaction of FeS with H 2 S. 128 The hypothesis is supported by its correlation with iron-sulphur proteins, 129 i.e., proteins with iron-sulphide and similar metal-sulphide catalytic centres, [130][131][132] which constitute the group of phylogenetically oldest enzymes, e.g. nitrogenases.…”

Section: Reactions On Sulphide Surfacesmentioning

confidence: 88%

Catalysis in the Primordial World

Raos

Bermanec²

2017

Kem. Ind.

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Catalysis provides orderly prebiotic synthesis and eventually its evolution into autocatalytic (self-reproduction) systems. Research on homogeneous catalysis is concerned mostly with random peptide synthesis and the chances to produce catalytic peptide oligomers. Synthesis of ribose via formose reaction was found to be catalysed by B(OH) 4 − , presumably released by weathering of borate minerals. Oxide and clay mineral surfaces provide catalytic sites for the synthesis of oligopeptides and oligonucleotides. Chemoautotrophic or iron-sulphur-world theory assumes that the first (pioneer) organisms developed by catalytic processes on (Fe/Ni)S particles formed near/close hydrothermal vents. The review provides an overlay of possible catalytic reactions in prebiotic environment, discussing their selectivity (regioselectivity, stereoselectivity) as well as geological availability of catalytic minerals and geochemical conditions enabling catalytic reactions on early Earth.

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Role for Ferredoxins in the Origin of Life and Biological Evolution

Cited by 152 publications

References 18 publications

Early Microbial Evolution: The Age of Anaerobes

Early Microbial Evolution: The Age of Anaerobes

On the origins of cells: a hypothesis for the evolutionary transitions from abiotic geochemistry to chemoautotrophic prokaryotes, and from prokaryotes to nucleated cells

Catalysis in the Primordial World

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