Historical Development of Origins Research

Abstract

Following the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859, many naturalists adopted the idea that living organisms were the historical outcome of gradual transformation of lifeless matter. These views soon merged with the developments of biochemistry and cell biology and led to proposals in which the origin of protoplasm was equated with the origin of life. The heterotrophic origin of life proposed by Oparin and Haldane in the 1920s was part of this tradition, which Oparin enriched by transforming the discussion of the emergence of the first cells into a workable multidisciplinary research program.On the other hand, the scientific trend toward understanding biological phenomena at the molecular level led authors like Troland, Muller, and others to propose that single molecules or viruses represented primordial living systems. The contrast between these opposing views on the origin of life represents not only contrasting views of the nature of life itself, but also major ideological discussions that reached a surprising intensity in the years following Stanley Miller's seminal result which showed the ease with which organic compounds of biochemical significance could be synthesized under putative primitive conditions. In fact, during the years following the Miller experiment, attempts to understand the origin of life were strongly influenced by research on DNA replication and protein biosynthesis, and, in socio-political terms, by the atmosphere created by Cold War tensions.The catalytic versatility of RNA molecules clearly merits a critical reappraisal of Muller's viewpoint. However, the discovery of ribozymes does not imply that autocatalytic nucleic acid molecules ready to be used as primordial genes were floating in the primitive oceans, or that the RNA world emerged completely assembled from simple precursors present in the prebiotic soup. The evidence supporting the presence of a wide range of organic molecules on the primitive Earth, including membrane-forming compounds, suggests that the evolution of membrane-bounded molecular systems preceded cellular life on our planet, and that life is the evolutionary outcome of a process, not of a single, fortuitous event.

The Organic Composition of Carbonaceous Meteorites: The Evolutionary Story Ahead of Biochemistry

“…C, H, N, O, P, and S are known to be present as diverse and often complex organic molecules in a variety of extraterrestrial environments (Lazcano 2010) and their long cosmic history has supported the idea of a possible exobiology. However, its analytical basis comes from the study of carbon-containing meteorites that have provided the only natural sample of chemical evolution large enough for direct laboratory analyses.…”

Darwinism and the Origin of Life

“…New proposals of evolutionary scenarios for the origin of life were favored by the increasing molecularization of biology at the beginning of twentieth century (Fry 2006;Lazcano 2010). The contributions of Aleksandr I.…”

“…Oparin (1894Oparin ( -1980 have generally been acknowledged as (a) the final abandonment of spontaneous generation (Farley 1977, p. 171); (b) a philosophical breakthrough assuming a materialistic viewwithout gaps between inert and living matter, or "continuity thesis" after Fry (1995)-and a Darwinist context-where the emergence of life was not by chance nor a single event but the outcome of a slow evolutionary process during long periods of time (Fry 2000, pp. 77-79); and (c) an epistemological background, shaped by the sociopolitical context, for the new experimental research program of prebiotic chemistry (Lazcano 2010). In 1929, John B. S. Haldane (1892Haldane ( -1964) published a short paper (Haldane 1929) that independently converged with the initial ideas exposed by the Russian biochemist (Oparin 1924) and that retrospectively constitutes the most significant contribution to the field from the western world in the 1920s.…”

“…This notion was well at the center of the research program led by Jacques Loeb (1859Loeb ( -1924, whose goal was the artificial production of life (Loeb 1906, p. 223). Although neglected by the official history of biology, some early followers of the synthetic approach to life, such as the French scientist Stéphane Leduc (1853Leduc ( -1939 and the Mexican Alfonso L. Herrera (1868Herrera ( -1943, were pursuing both a better understanding of life and the possible pathways to its origin on Earth (Keller 2002;Peretó and Català 2007;Lazcano 2010). The works by Loeb, Leduc, and Herrera, like those by Heackel, raised strong concerns among vitalist scientists with strong religious ties, especially among Roman Catholics in Europe in the early twentieth century: Jaume Pujiula in Spain, Agostino Gemelli (1878-1959 in Italy, andJean Maumus (1860-1930) in France were Catholic priests, scientists, and authors of vitriolic criticisms of the materialistic approaches to life.…”

Mathematical modelling of molecule evolution in protocells

“…Living entities exist in many possible conditions, even the most extreme ones (Cary et al, 1998;Schleper et al, 1995;Stetter, 2007); however, regardless of the ubiquitous nature of life, we still do not know how this process began. The problem of the emergence of life is difficult to solve; up to now direct evidence, of the earliest life formation, has not been found, and because life emerged over 4 billion years ago all traces of this process probably have vanished (Lazcano, 2010). Moreover, the exact conditions on the early Earth are unknown (Lunine, 2006;Sleep, 2010;Mojzsis et al, 1999).…”