Evolution of self-assembly of probionts

Oparin, A.I.; Gladilin, K.L.

doi:10.1016/0303-2647(80)90011-8

Cited by 44 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Take for instance Oparin's coacervates [18] and Fox's microspheres [19]. In suitable environments they may demonstrate many characteristics of unicellular organisms, like growth, some form of metabolism, aggregation, propagation and strikingly, even some form of resting electric potential as well as excitability (action potential) [20].…”

Section: Living or Non-living Entities?mentioning

confidence: 99%

What Nanobacteria and Nanovesicles May Tell Us about the Origin of Life?

Jerman¹

2017

OALib

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In contemporary, established biology life is almost exclusively treated as a molecular phenomenon. Therefore, the mystery of the origin of life is sought in molecular terms and processes. But according to certain advanced researches and considerations, life has also other essential "ingredients": active and diffused organized information and a specific physical as well as physicochemical state of matter characterized by long range order and coherent domains. These characteristics should also form the basis of the pre-biotic evolution, the phase of more or less organized nano-and micro-vesicular systems that lead from abiotic to living systems. In this view, the complex molecular, physical and physicochemical order replaces the DNA molecule in its capability to maintain the stability of information complexity from generation to generation. Such systems were already found on the present day Earth and even within organisms and were also synthetically reproduced. They are called nanobacteria and in general nanovesicles or nanoparticles. They may represent an actual passage from non living forms to primitive organisms. Subject AreasEvolutionary Studies

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Section: Living or Non-living Entities?mentioning

confidence: 99%

What Nanobacteria and Nanovesicles May Tell Us about the Origin of Life?

Jerman¹

2017

OALib

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“…Looking critically to the present state of knowledge in the field and looking back to the work of Oparin (Oparin, 1938;Oparin and Gladilin, 1980), one is tempted to say that since Oparin's ideas progress has been made in the development of certain models (e. g. RNA world, iron-sulfur world, vesicles as protocells models, "lipid-world, etc.). This progress is, however, only a relatively minor.…”

Section: Summary and Concluding Remarksmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…It is reasonable to assume that precursor structures of the first cell(s), so-called "progenotes" (Woese, 1998;Doolittle and Brown, 1994) or "protocells" (Morowitz et al, 1988), "protobionts" (Oparin, 1965) or "probionts" (Oparin and Gladilin, 1980), were a bit simpler than the first cells. They may have been composed of simple membranes (as boundaries of the structures), an internal set of catalysts (possibly simple oligopeptides/proteins and/or metal ion complexes), sequence-encoded information-carrying molecules (simple RNA/DNA), and a polypeptide/protein synthesis apparatus (possibly a mixture of RNAs and proteins; or just RNAs (Moore and Steitz, 2002)).…”

Section: Some Of the Origin-of-life-related Questions And Their Relatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surfactant Assemblies and their Various Possible Roles for the Origin(S) of Life

Walde

2006

Orig Life Evol Biosph

139

110

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A large number of surfactants (surface active molecules) are chemically simple compounds that can be obtained by simple chemical reactions, in some cases even under presumably prebiotic conditions. Surfactant assemblies are self-organized polymolecular aggregates of surfactants, in the simplest case micelles, vesicles, hexagonal and cubic phases. It may be that these different types of surfactant assemblies have played various, so-far underestimated important roles in the processes that led to the formation of the first living systems. Although nucleic acids are key players in the formation of cells as we know them today (RNA world hypothesis), it is still unclear how RNA could have been formed under prebiotic conditions. Surfactants with their self-organizing properties may have assisted, controlled and compartimentalized some of the chemical reactions that eventually led to the formation of molecules like RNA. Therefore, surfactants were possibly very important in prebiotic times in the sense that they may have been involved in different physical and chemical processes that finally led to a transformation of non-living matter to the first cellular form(s) of life. This hypothesis is based on four main experimental observations: (i) Surfactant aggregation can lead to cell-like compartimentation (vesicles). (ii) Surfactant assemblies can provide local reaction conditions that are very different from the bulk medium, which may lead to a dramatic change in the rate of chemical reactions and to a change in reaction product distributions. (iii) The surface properties of surfactant assemblies that may be liquid- or solid-like, charged or neutral, and the elasticity and packing density of surfactant assemblies depend on the chemical structure of the surfactants, on the presence of other molecules, and on the overall environmental conditions (e. g. temperature). This wide range of surface characteristics of surfactant assemblies may allow a control of surface-bound chemical reactions not only by the charge or hydrophobicity of the surface but also by its "softness". (iv) Chiral polymolecular assemblies (helices) may form from chiral surfactants. There are many examples that illustrate the different roles and potential roles of surfactant assemblies in different research areas outside of the field of the origin(s) of life, most importantly in investigations of contemporary living systems, in nanotechnology applications, and in the development of drug delivery systems. Concepts and ideas behind many of these applications may have relevance also in connection to the different unsolved problems in understanding the origin(s) of life.

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“…The typical macromolecular components of Oparin's coacervates were polypeptides and polysaccharides (Evreinova et al, 1973(Evreinova et al, , 1974(Evreinova et al, , 1975(Evreinova et al, , 1977Gladilin et al, 1978;Oparin, 1967Oparin, , 1968Oparin, , 1969Oparin and Gladilin, 1980;Walde et al, 1994). The coacervates droplets made from these materials give appearance of amoeba-like objects, which change shape, form "vacuoles", release "vacuole contents", flow, merge, divide and show other life-like properties.…”

Section: Introduction and Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It should be pointed out that in those early days DNA has not been discovered and that the origin of life was thought to be protein based. Among the most studied features of coacervates is their ability to grow and to mimic self-reproduction, by splitting into the "daughter cells (Creating Coacervates, Flammer web site; Evreinova et al, 1973Evreinova et al, , 1974Evreinova et al, , 1975Evreinova et al, , 1977Gladilin et al, 1978;Oparin, 1967Oparin, , 1968Oparin, , 1969Oparin and Gladilin, 1980;Walde et al, 1994). According to Oparin, various organic reactions could occur inside coacervates.…”

Section: Introduction and Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%