On the Free Energy That Drove Primordial Anabolism

Kaufmann, Michael

doi:10.3390/ijms10041853

Cited by 25 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 144 publications

(118 reference statements)

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“…The OoL question benefits greatly from crossovers of scientific disciplines, each of which brings its specific skills to the table. Chemistry supplies the knowledge of the construction kit, and physics, for instance, the energetic boundaries for the assembly of life [73,74]. Biology is confronted with bigger pictures, providing the roadmap from extant life to its origins via data collection and analysis (from multiple 'omics' technologies [75] to the study of elaborate microbial communities [76]).…”

Section: Pressing Questions In Ool Are Interdisciplinarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To fulfil their energetic requirements, prebiotic systems would need both electron donors and acceptors supplied by their environment. The source of energy for the earliest life has been strongly disputed, with plausible hypotheses ranging from pH and redox gradients to thermal energy and UV light (for a detailed discussion see [74,193,194]. It is, however, not unlikely that several energy sources played a role in different prebiotic stages.…”

Section: The Energy Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Future of Origin of Life Research: Bridging Decades-Old Divisions

Preiner

Asche

Becker

et al. 2020

Life

119

150

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Research on the origin of life is highly heterogeneous. After a peculiar historical development, it still includes strongly opposed views which potentially hinder progress. In the 1st Interdisciplinary Origin of Life Meeting, early-career researchers gathered to explore the commonalities between theories and approaches, critical divergence points, and expectations for the future. We find that even though classical approaches and theories—e.g., bottom-up and top-down, RNA world vs. metabolism-first—have been prevalent in origin of life research, they are ceasing to be mutually exclusive and they can and should feed integrating approaches. Here we focus on pressing questions and recent developments that bridge the classical disciplines and approaches, and highlight expectations for future endeavours in origin of life research.

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Section: Pressing Questions In Ool Are Interdisciplinarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Energy Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%

The Future of Origin of Life Research: Bridging Decades-Old Divisions

Preiner

Asche

Becker

et al. 2020

Life

119

150

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Several authors have mentioned in passing that H 2 could have been a source of energy for primordial biochemical systems [38][39][40][41]. If H 2 was the electron donor, what was the electron acceptor?…”

Section: H 2 and Wood-ljungdahl Pathwaymentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrogen, metals, bifurcating electrons, and proton gradients: The early evolution of biological energy conservation

Martin¹

2011

FEBS Letters

100

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Edited by Miguel Teixeira and Ricardo O. LouroKeywords: Early evolution Serpentinization Acetogenesis Methanogenesis Hydrothermal vents Origin of life a b s t r a c t Life is a persistent, self-specified set of far from equilibrium chemical reactions. In modern microbes, core carbon and energy metabolism are what keep cells alive. In very early chemical evolution, the forerunners of carbon and energy metabolism were the processes of generating reduced carbon compounds from CO 2 and the mechanisms of harnessing energy as compounds capable of doing some chemical work. The process of serpentinization at alkaline hydrothermal vents holds promise as a model for the origin of early reducing power, because Fe 2+ in the Earth's crust reduces water to H 2 and inorganic carbon to methane. The overall geochemical process of serpentinization is similar to the biochemical process of methanogenesis, and methanogenesis is similar to acetogenesis in that both physiologies allow energy conservation from the reduction of CO 2 with electrons from H 2 . Electron bifurcation is a newly recognized cytosolic process that anaerobes use generate low potential electrons, it plays an important role in some forms of methanogenesis and, via speculation, possibly in acetogenesis. Electron bifurcation likely figures into the early evolution of biological energy conservation.

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“…Proposals for the nature of primordial CO 2 fixation and energy conservation at biochemical origins typically posit the participation of external energy sources 28 such as UV light 29 , heat, impact, pressure, electrical currents, or ion gradients 20 to push organic synthesis forward. The reactions reported here require no additional energy source for a protometabolic acetyl-CoA pathway to unfold from H 2 and CO 2 other than the natural reactivity of two gasses and metal catalysts, indicating that membranes, though essential for the emergence of free-living cells 17 , were not required for primordial CO 2 fixation along an exergonic, H 2 dependent, non-enzymatic pathway to C3 products.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A hydrogen dependent geochemical analogue of primordial carbon and energy metabolism

Preiner

Igarashi

Muchowska

et al. 2019

Preprint

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28Hydrogen gas, H2, is generated in alkaline hydrothermal vents from reactions of iron 29 containing minerals with water during a geological process called serpentinization. It has been 30 a source of electrons and energy since there was liquid water on the early Earth, and it fuelled 31 early anaerobic ecosystems in the Earth's crust 1-3 . H2 is the electron donor for the most 32 ancient route of biological CO2 fixation, the acetyl-CoA (or Wood-Ljungdahl) pathway, 33 which unlike any other autotrophic pathway simultaneously supplies three key requirements 34 for life: reduced carbon in the form of acetyl groups, electrons in the form of reduced 35 ferredoxin, and ion gradients for energy conservation in the form of ATP 4,5 . The pathway is 36 linear, not cyclic, it releases energy rather than requiring energy input, its enzymes are replete 37 with primordial metal cofactors 6,7 , it traces to the last universal common ancestor 8 and abiotic, 38 geochemical organic syntheses resembling segments of the pathway occur in hydrothermal 39 vents today 9,10 . Laboratory simulations of the acetyl-CoA pathway's reactions include the 40 nonenzymatic synthesis of thioesters from CO and methylsulfide 11 , the synthesis of acetate 12 41 and pyruvate 13 from CO2 using native iron or external electrochemical potentials 14 as the 42 electron source. However, a full abiotic analogue of the acetyl-CoA pathway from H2 and 43 CO2 as it occurs in life has not been reported to date. Here we show that three hydrothermal 44 mineralsawaruite (Ni3Fe), magnetite (Fe3O4) and greigite (Fe3S4)catalyse the fixation 45 of CO2 with H2 at 100 °C under alkaline aqueous conditions. The product spectrum includes 46 formate (100 mM), acetate (100 µM), pyruvate (10 µM), methanol (100 µM), and methane. 47 With these simple catalysts, the overall exergonic reaction of the acetyl-CoA pathway is 48 facile, shedding light on both the geochemical origin of microbial metabolism and on the 49 nature of abiotic formate and methane synthesis in modern hydrothermal vents. 50 51 Organic synthesis in hydrothermal vents is relevant to life's origin because the reactions 52 involve sustained energy release founded in the disequilibrium between CO2 and the vast 53 amounts of molecular hydrogen, H2, generated in the Earth's crust during 54 serpentinization 1,2,9,10,[15][16][17][18][19] . Enzymatic versions of those abiotic reactions occur in core energy 55 metabolism in acetogens and methanogens 4-7 , ancient anaerobic autotrophs that live from H2 56 and CO2 via the acetyl-CoA pathway and that still inhabit the crust today 7 . Though the 57 enzymes that catalyse the microbial reactions are well investigated 4-7 , the catalysts promoting 58 the abiotic reactions in vents today, and that might have been instrumental at life's origin, are 59 not fully understood 9 . To probe the mechanisms of hydrothermal metabolic reactions 60 3 emulating ancient pathways, we investigated three iron minerals that naturally occur in 61 hydrothermal vents: greigite (...

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On the Free Energy That Drove Primordial Anabolism

Cited by 25 publications

References 144 publications

The Future of Origin of Life Research: Bridging Decades-Old Divisions

The Future of Origin of Life Research: Bridging Decades-Old Divisions

Hydrogen, metals, bifurcating electrons, and proton gradients: The early evolution of biological energy conservation

A hydrogen dependent geochemical analogue of primordial carbon and energy metabolism

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