The Emergence of Life

Camprubí, Eloi; Leeuw, J.W. de; House, Christopher H.; Raulin, F.; Russell, Michael J.; Spang, Anja; Tirumalai, Madhan R.; Westall, Francès

doi:10.1007/s11214-019-0624-8

Cited by 64 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 489 publications

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“…In addition, from a prebiotic perspective, aqueous HCN polymerization may be mainly considered as cyanide polymerization. This assumption can be acceptable because: (i) HCN polymerization is preferably conducted at alkaline pH 8–10 23 , (pK a HCN = 9.2, 25 °C), and (ii) alkaline environments are considered to be ideal prebiotic niches for the accumulation of organics with biological interest 24 , 25 . From an industrial point of view and the potential applications of this singular polymeric system, the use of a microwave-induced polymerization should lead to, on one hand, a notable decrease in the reaction times; and on the other hand, important changes in their structural characteristics, since the temperature has a significant influence on the nature of these macromolecules 9 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A dual perspective on the microwave-assisted synthesis of HCN polymers towards the chemical evolution and design of functional materials

Hortal

Pérez-Fernández

Fuente

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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In this paper, the first study on NH4CN polymerization induced by microwave radiation is described, where a singular kinetic behaviour, especially when this reaction is conducted in the absence of air, is found. As a result, a complex conjugated N-heterocyclic polymer system is obtained, whose properties are very different, and even improved according to morphological features, characterized by their X-ray diffraction patterns and scanning electron microscopy analysis, with respect to those produced under conventional thermal treatment. In addition, a wide variety of relevant bioorganics have been identified, such as amino acids, nucleobases, co-factors, etc., from the synthetized NH4CN polymers. These particular families of polymers are of high interest in the fields of astrobiology and prebiotic chemistry and, more recently, in the development of smart multifunctional materials. From an astrobiological perspective, microwave-driven syntheses may simulate hydrothermal environments, which are considered ideal niches for increasing organic molecular complexity, and eventually as scenarios for an origin of life. From an industrial point of view and for potential applications, a microwave irradiation process leads to a notable decrease in the reaction times, and tune the properties of these new series macromolecular systems. The characteristics found for these materials encourage the development of further systematic research on this alternative HCN polymerization.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A dual perspective on the microwave-assisted synthesis of HCN polymers towards the chemical evolution and design of functional materials

Hortal

Pérez-Fernández

Fuente

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…It is now largely accepted that LUCA is the common ancestor of bacteria and archaea 14,15 with eukaryotes originating from within the archaea in the two domains tree of life 18 . Given current estimates for the time of Earth's formation and the presence of liquid water offering habitable conditions 19 our results suggest that early life must have very quickly (<500 Myr) evolved considerable cellular complexity.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 58%

Phenotypic reconstruction of the last universal common ancestor reveals a complex cell

Baidouri

Venditti

Suzuki

et al. 2020

Preprint

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A fundamental concept in evolutionary theory is the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) from which all living organisms. While some authors have suggested a relatively complex LUCA it is still widely assumed that LUCA must have been a very simple cell and that life has subsequently increased in complexity through time. However, while current thought does tend towards a general increase in complexity through time in Eukaryotes, there is increasing evidence that bacteria and archaea have undergone considerable genome reduction during their evolution. This raises the surprising possibility that LUCA, as the ancestor of bacteria and archaea may have been a considerably complex cell. While hypotheses regarding the phenotype of LUCA do exist, all are founded on gene presence/absence. Yet, despite recent attempts to link genes and phenotypic traits in prokaryotes, it is still inherently difficult to predict phenotype based on the presence or absence of genes alone. In response to this, we used Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods to predict ancestral traits. Testing for robustness to horizontal gene transfer (HGT) we inferred the phenotypic traits of LUCA using two robust published phylogenetic trees and a dataset of 3,128 bacterial and archaeal species (Supplementary Information). Our results depict LUCA as a far more complex cell than has previously been proposed, challenging the evolutionary model of increased complexity through time in prokaryotes. Given current estimates for the emergence of LUCA we suggest that early life very rapidly evolved considerable cellular complexity.

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“…In particular, given that the LUCA had a relatively low temperature sensitivity, we would expect it to have emerged in a strongly fluctuating thermal environment. Indeed, currently proposed environments for the origin of life (e.g., alkaline hydrothermal vents, subaerial hot springs, and submarine hydrothermal sediments ;Mulkidjanian et al 2012;Sojo et al 2016;Westall et al 2018;Camprubí et al 2019) are characterised by strong gradients in temperature, pH, and other physicochemical variables. Such environments are also consistent (under certain assumptions) with the LUCA being adapted to a moderate thermophilic (but not hyperthermophilic) lifestyle, as suggested by the relatively high robustness to mutations of its ADK, its estimated opt for catalysis (65.23°C; Appendix 1-figure 12), as well as some previous studies (Di Giulio, 2003;Gaucher et al, 2003Gaucher et al, , 2008Catchpole and Forterre, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher temperatures worsen the effects of mutations on protein stability

Kontopoulos

Patmanidis

Barraclough

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Understanding whether and how temperature increases alter the effects of mutations on protein stability is crucial for understanding the limits to thermal adaptation by organisms. Currently, it is generally assumed that the stability effects of mutations are independent of temperature. Yet, mutations should become increasingly destabilizing as temperature rises due to the increase in the energy of atoms. Here, by performing an extensive computational analysis on the essential enzyme adenylate kinase in prokaryotes, we show, for the first time, that mutations become more destabilizing with temperature both across and within species. Consistent with these findings, we find that substitution rates of prokaryotes decrease nonlinearly with temperature. Our results suggest that life on Earth likely originated in a moderately thermophilic and thermally fluctuating environment, and indicate that global warming should decrease the per-generation rate of molecular evolution of prokaryotes.

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The Emergence of Life

Cited by 64 publications

References 489 publications

A dual perspective on the microwave-assisted synthesis of HCN polymers towards the chemical evolution and design of functional materials

A dual perspective on the microwave-assisted synthesis of HCN polymers towards the chemical evolution and design of functional materials

Phenotypic reconstruction of the last universal common ancestor reveals a complex cell

Higher temperatures worsen the effects of mutations on protein stability

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