Ligand Field Theory and the Origin of Life as an Emergent Feature of the Periodic Table of Elements

Morowitz, Harold J.; Srinivasan, Vijayasarathy; Smith, Eric

doi:10.1086/bblv219n1p1

Cited by 39 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Consider, for example, the (reverse) citric acid cycle, which has been argued to have (possibly) been a major step in the origin of life by synthesizing the basic building blocks of organic molecules [28,29]. Even though at present the catalysts that drive the reactions in this cycle are enzymes (proteins), at the early stages these reactions could very well have been catalyzed by much simpler, naturally occurring elements, or ones that are easily synthesized (by basic chemistry) from freely available inorganic molecules [30]. Thus, these original catalysts can be considered food molecules, but they are not involved (as reactants or products) in any of the reactions in the (reverse) citric acid cycle ( i.e.…”

Section: Modification Of the Original Definition And Algorithmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Required Levels of Catalysis for Emergence of Autocatalytic Sets in Models of Chemical Reaction Systems

Hordijk

Kauffman

Steel

2011

IJMS

149

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The formation of a self-sustaining autocatalytic chemical network is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the origin of life. The question of whether such a network could form “by chance” within a sufficiently complex suite of molecules and reactions is one that we have investigated for a simple chemical reaction model based on polymer ligation and cleavage. In this paper, we extend this work in several further directions. In particular, we investigate in more detail the levels of catalysis required for a self-sustaining autocatalytic network to form. We study the size of chemical networks within which we might expect to find such an autocatalytic subset, and we extend the theoretical and computational analyses to models in which catalysis requires template matching.

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Section: Modification Of the Original Definition And Algorithmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Required Levels of Catalysis for Emergence of Autocatalytic Sets in Models of Chemical Reaction Systems

Hordijk

Kauffman

Steel

2011

IJMS

149

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“…Harold Morowitz and others [11] have realized that if this cycle of reactions is run in the reverse direction, two copies of one of the members of the cycle are created for each “turn” of the TCA cycle, making the reaction cycle as a whole “autocatalytic”, in the sense of producing two copies of one of its members. Thus the cycle of reactions as a whole acts as a catalyst for that molecular species.…”

Section: Metabolism First Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approaches to the Origin of Life on Earth

Kauffman

2011

Life

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I discuss briefly the history of the origin of life field, focusing on the “Miller” era of prebiotic synthesis, through the “Orgel” era seeking enzyme free template replication of single stranded RNA or similar polynucleotides, to the RNA world era with one of its foci on a ribozyme with the capacity to act as a polymerase able to copy itself. I give the history of the independent invention in 1971 by T. Ganti, M. Eigen and myself of three alternative theories of the origin of molecular replication: the Chemotron, the Hypercycle, and Collectively Autocatalytic Sets, CAS, respectively. To date, only collectively autocatalytic DNA, RNA, and peptide sets have achieved molecular reproduction of polymers. Theoretical work and experimental work on CAS both support their plausibility as models of openly evolvable protocells, if housed in dividing compartments such as dividing liposomes. My own further hypothesis beyond that of CAS in themselves, of their formation as a phase transition in complex chemical reaction systems of substrates, reactions and products, where the molecules in the system are candidates to catalyze the very same reactions, now firmly established as theorems, awaits experimental proof using combinatorial chemistry to make libraries of stochastic DNA, RNA and/or polypeptides, or other classes of molecules to test the hypothesis that molecular polymer reproduction has emerged as a true phase transition in complex chemical reaction systems. I remark that my colleague Marc Ballivet of the University of Geneva and I, may have issued the first publications discussing what became combinatorial chemistry, in published issued patents in 1987, 1989 and later, in this field.

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“…There is a growing belief about the origin of life, that ligand-assisted catalysis created many of the earliest biomolecules (Morowitz, Srinivasan, & Smith, 2010; Srinivasan & Morowitz, 2009; Wachtershauser, 2007). This ligand-assisted catalysis often involved transition metal ions.…”

Section: Mica Sheets As Primitive Enzymesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Possible origin of life between mica sheets: does life imitate mica?

Hansma

2013

Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics

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The mica hypothesis for the origin of life proposes that life originated between the sheets of muscovite mica. This paper elaborates on two ways that life resembles what might have originated between mica sheets. First, enzymes: The configurations and dynamics of enzymes, with their substrates, cofactors, and sometimes transition metal ions, often resemble mica sheets, with their open-and-shut motions, acting on small molecules between them, sometimes assisted by transition metal ions. Second, organisms: Mica world had the potential to be a community or ecosystem of prebiotic organisms in a way unlike other models for the origin of life.

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Ligand Field Theory and the Origin of Life as an Emergent Feature of the Periodic Table of Elements

Cited by 39 publications

References 18 publications

Required Levels of Catalysis for Emergence of Autocatalytic Sets in Models of Chemical Reaction Systems

Required Levels of Catalysis for Emergence of Autocatalytic Sets in Models of Chemical Reaction Systems

Approaches to the Origin of Life on Earth

Possible origin of life between mica sheets: does life imitate mica?

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