Experimental Retracement of the Origins of a Protocell

Fox, Sidney W.; Bahn, Peter; Dose, Klaus; Harada, Kaoru; Hsu, Laura; Ishima, Yoshio; Jungck, John R.; Kendrick, Jean; Krampitz, G.; Lacey, James C.; Matsuno, Kōichirō; Melius, Paul; Middlebrook, Mavis; Nakashima, Tadayoshi; Pappelis, A. J.; Pol, Alexander; Rohlfing, Duane L.; Vegotsky, Allen; Waehneldt, Thomas V.; Wax, Harry; Yu, Bo

doi:10.1007/978-94-011-0105-9_3

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Emerging cells had similar to proteinoid microspheres' structure. Artificial fossilization of the laboratory products closely resemble ancient microfossils from ancient strata [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

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Low frequency electrical waves in ensembles of proteinoid microspheres

Mougkogiannis¹,

Adamatzky²

2023

Preprint

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Proteinoids (thermal proteins) are produced by heating amino acids to their melting point and initiation of polymerisation to produce polymeric chains. Amino acid-like molecules, or proteinoids, can condense at high temperatures to create aggregation structures called proteinoid microspheres, which have been reported to exhibit strong electrical oscillations. When the amino acids L-Glutamic acid (L-Glu) and L-Aspartic acid (L-Asp) were combined with electric fields of varying frequencies and intensities, electrical activity resulted. We recorded electrical activity of the proteinoid microspheres’ ensembles via a pair of differential electrodes. This is analogous to extracellular recording in physiology or EEG in neuroscience but at micro-level. We discovered that the ensembles produce spikes of electrical potential, an average duration of each spike is 26 min and average amplitude is 1 mV. The spikes are typically grouped in trains of two spikes. The electrical activity of the ensembles can be tuned by external stimulation because ensembles of proteinoid microspheres can generate and propagate electrical activity when exposed to electric fields.

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“…Emerging cells had similar to proteinoid microspheres' structure. Artificial fossilization of the laboratory products closely resemble ancient microfossils from ancient strata [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…In aqueous solution proteinoids swell forming microsphere [1]. The proteinoid microspheres have been considered as proto-neurons [2,3,4]. Emerging cells had similar to proteinoid microspheres' structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low frequency electrical waves in ensembles of proteinoid microspheres

Mougkogiannis¹,

Adamatzky²

2023

Preprint

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“…These protocells can feature many of the properties common to life: metabolism, growth, reproduction and response to stimuli in the environment [23]. They are also capable of evolving to more modern cells -including the initiation of a nucleic acid coding system [23]. However, the polypeptides in these studies are composed of mixed L-and D-amino acids with no mention of how a microsphere might evolve toward a homochiral contemporary cell with exclusively L-amino acids [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was found that heated amino acids can self-order in copolymerization reactions and self-organize when in contact with water to form protocells (also referred to as minimal or pre-contemporary cells [21]). These protocells can feature many of the properties common to life: metabolism, growth, reproduction and response to stimuli in the environment [23]. They are also capable of evolving to more modern cells -including the initiation of a nucleic acid coding system [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We then introduce spatial dynamics and discuss our findings in the Results section. In the Discussion we make contact with proto-cellular abiogenesis in light of the work by Fox and colleagues [21,22,23] and by Fishkis [19], highlighting peptides as a potentially crucial ingredient in the first protocells. We also briefly discuss the consequences of our work to future searches of extraterrestrial stereochemistry.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toward Homochiral Protocells in Noncatalytic Peptide Systems

Gleiser

Walker

2009

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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The activation-polymerization-epimerization-depolymerization (APED) model of Plasson et al. has recently been proposed as a mechanism for the evolution of homochirality on prebiotic Earth. The dynamics of the APED model in two-dimensional spatially-extended systems is investigated for various realistic reaction parameters. It is found that the APED system allows for the formation of isolated homochiral proto-domains surrounded by a racemate. A diffusive slowdown of the APED network induced, for example, through tidal motion or evaporating pools and lagoons leads to the stabilization of homochiral bounded structures as expected in the first self-assembled protocells.

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Thermal Peptides as the Initial Genetic System

Pappelis

Fox

1996

Chemical Evolution: Physics of the Origin and Evolution of Life

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Experimental Retracement of the Origins of a Protocell

Cited by 6 publications

References 41 publications

Low frequency electrical waves in ensembles of proteinoid microspheres

Low frequency electrical waves in ensembles of proteinoid microspheres

Toward Homochiral Protocells in Noncatalytic Peptide Systems

Thermal Peptides as the Initial Genetic System

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