Re-conceptualizing the origins of life

Walker, Sara Imari; Packard, Norman H.; Cody, George D.

doi:10.1098/rsta.2016.0337

Cited by 27 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(63 reference statements)

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“…Surprisingly, biology has played a modest part in the search for the OoL [14,25]. A closer look reveals possible reasons for this (quantitatively) sparse involvement.…”

Section: Top-down Versus Bottom-up: Where To?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the past 10 years, many have worked and asked for OoL research to unite [25,39,124,125]. Here we look at experimental examples from the last decade that connect different disciplines, theories or interpretations ( Figure 2).…”

Section: On the Right Track? Looking At The Past Decadementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Modern thinking on the OoL highlights the need for not only the synthesis of life's building blocks (themselves crucial goals), but also the reenactment of the processes they participate in [195]. Thankfully, what follows from this realization is that metabolism-and genetics-oriented hypotheses are gradually ceasing to be seen as mutually exclusive, because cellular processes involve both metabolites and genetic molecules [25,124]. A particular example regards evolution.…”

Section: Rna World Versus Metabolism-firstmentioning

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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“…Surprisingly, biology has played a modest part in the search for the OoL [14,25]. A closer look reveals possible reasons for this (quantitatively) sparse involvement.…”

Section: Top-down Versus Bottom-up: Where To?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: On the Right Track? Looking At The Past Decadementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rna World Versus Metabolism-firstmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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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“…Although several studies suggest that biomolecules conferred a significant advantage to primitive systems resulting in their dominance in contemporary biochemistry [25][26][27] it does not necessarily follow that life was originally based on the same biomolecules. Indeed, it is known that biomolecules represent a minute fraction of the molecular diversity produced by prebiotic chemistry (as mentioned above) and this would tend to lower the probability that chemical bonds formed exclusively among biomolecules particularly in a one-pot prebiotic synthesis [3,24,28]. The possible importance of Life 2020, 10, 6 4 of 16 non-biomolecules in the OoL has been suggested previously as a sort of "chemical opportunism" [29].…”

Section: Of 16mentioning

confidence: 93%

“…How life emerged from inanimate chemistry is an unresolved scientific question and an area of active research [1][2][3]. Contemporary biochemistry uses a relatively small set of building blocks, e.g., only 20 coded amino acids, four ribonucleotides, four deoxyribonucleotides, etc., out of a large number of possibilities [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polyesters as a Model System for Building Primitive Biologies from Non-Biological Prebiotic Chemistry

Chandru

Mamajanov

Cleaves

et al. 2020

Life

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A variety of organic chemicals were likely available on prebiotic Earth. These derived from diverse processes including atmospheric and geochemical synthesis and extraterrestrial input, and were delivered to environments including oceans, lakes, and subaerial hot springs. Prebiotic chemistry generates both molecules used by modern organisms, such as proteinaceous amino acids, as well as many molecule types not used in biochemistry. As prebiotic chemical diversity was likely high, and the core of biochemistry uses a rather small set of common building blocks, the majority of prebiotically available organic compounds may not have been those used in modern biochemistry. Chemical evolution was unlikely to have been able to discriminate which molecules would eventually be used in biology, and instead, interactions among compounds were governed simply by abundance and chemical reactivity. Previous work has shown that likely prebiotically available α-hydroxy acids can combinatorially polymerize into polyesters that self-assemble to create new phases which are able to compartmentalize other molecule types. The unexpectedly rich complexity of hydroxy acid chemistry and the likely enormous structural diversity of prebiotic organic chemistry suggests chemical evolution could have been heavily influenced by molecules not used in contemporary biochemistry, and that there is a considerable amount of prebiotic chemistry which remains unexplored.

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Globalization as Adaptive Complexity: Learning from Failure

Centeno

Callahan

Larcey

2022

Risk, Systems and Decisions

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Our modern global civilization has been facilitated by increasingly technologically-advanced, interconnected, and interdependent systems. These systems have been constructed at an ever-increasing scale and level of complexity without an awareness of the risky mechanisms inherent in their design. At first glance, one may find few similarities between our modern globalized present and ancient civilizations. When we see past civilizations as complex adaptive systems, however, we can begin to recognize patterns, structures, and dynamics that have remained consistent through the centuries. Mechanisms like tipping points, feedback loops, contagions, cascades, synchronous failures, and cycles that can be responsible for systemic collapse are fundamental characteristics of any complex adaptive system, and can therefore serve as an effective common denominator from which to examine collapses through the ages. We argue for an analytical framework that incorporates these systemic characteristics for the study of historical collapse with the belief that these common mechanisms will help illuminate and expose relevant vulnerabilities in historical systems. In the end, we hope to learn from past societies and civilizations and allow our modern systems to benefit from lessons of systemic failures that historians may share with us. We believe these insights could inform how we see our systemic vulnerabilities and help to build a more resilient future.

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Re-conceptualizing the origins of life

Cited by 27 publications

References 54 publications

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

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

Polyesters as a Model System for Building Primitive Biologies from Non-Biological Prebiotic Chemistry

Globalization as Adaptive Complexity: Learning from Failure

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