The ambivalent role of water at the origins of life

Vieira, Andrey do Nascimento; Kleinermanns, Karl; Martin, William; Preiner, Martina

doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13815

Cited by 46 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 182 publications

(303 reference statements)

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“…The importance of this heterogeneity has been made especially clear with the discovery of molecular condensates, protein delimited compartments that function at many spatial scales within eukaryotic cells [ 45 ], with increasing focus now on prokaryotes [ 46 ]. The importance of spatial heterogeneity has also been noted in the discussion of the prebiotic generation of macromolecule precursors [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. These observations lead to the supposition that spatial chemical inhomogeneity was continually present from the earliest phases of life’s development ( Table 1 , criterion 4).…”

Section: Systems Biology Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are three points relevant to the issue of water and dehydration reactions we wish to make, and then a fourth in Section 7.3 . First, as we all know, water is essential for life [ 49 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 ]. Thus, an open question for the terrestrial scenarios is how did the synthesis of biomolecules via wet–dry cycles become transferred to permanently water-based cells, that is, how was the transition made from non-analog energy and material flow to analog flows, given the level of complexity inferred to have developed at the protocell stage prior to the advent of ribozymes and enzymes (criterion 7).…”

Section: Evaluation Of Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘Whole Organism’, Systems Biology, and Top-Down Criteria for Evaluating Scenarios for the Origin of Life

Brunk

Marshall

2021

Life

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While most advances in the study of the origin of life on Earth (OoLoE) are piecemeal, tested against the laws of chemistry and physics, ultimately the goal is to develop an overall scenario for life’s origin(s). However, the dimensionality of non-equilibrium chemical systems, from the range of possible boundary conditions and chemical interactions, renders the application of chemical and physical laws difficult. Here we outline a set of simple criteria for evaluating OoLoE scenarios. These include the need for containment, steady energy and material flows, and structured spatial heterogeneity from the outset. The Principle of Continuity, the fact that all life today was derived from first life, suggests favoring scenarios with fewer non-analog (not seen in life today) to analog (seen in life today) transitions in the inferred first biochemical pathways. Top-down data also indicate that a complex metabolism predated ribozymes and enzymes, and that full cellular autonomy and motility occurred post-LUCA. Using these criteria, we find the alkaline hydrothermal vent microchamber complex scenario with a late evolving exploitation of the natural occurring pH (or Na+ gradient) by ATP synthase the most compelling. However, there are as yet so many unknowns, we also advocate for the continued development of as many plausible scenarios as possible.

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Section: Systems Biology Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evaluation Of Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Whole Organism’, Systems Biology, and Top-Down Criteria for Evaluating Scenarios for the Origin of Life

Brunk

Marshall

2021

Life

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“…Proponents of a "small warm pond" for the origin of life emphasize the important roles of wet-dry cycles to promote polymerization (Frenkel-Pinter et al, 2020) and of clay minerals for forming and replicating biopolymers with specific sequences (Yu et al, 2013). Dispersed, low-flow circulation across the Atlantis Massif may create similar micro-environments of fluctuating water availability as water is consumed during serpentinization, followed by stages of higher water activity (Nascimento Vieira et al, 2020;Roumejon et al, 2018). Furthermore, serpentinization leads to the formation of serpentine and smectite clays (e.g., saponite) (MacDonald and Fyfe, 1985), which are similar to the montmorillonite clays most commonly invoked in origin-of-life hypotheses (Yu et al, 2013).…”

Section: Implications For the Early Evolution Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Extensive decentralized hydrogen export from the Atlantis Massif

Lang

Lilley

Baumberger

et al. 2021

Geology

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Hydrogen is an important energy source for subsurface microbial communities, but its availability beyond the flow focused through hydrothermal chimneys is largely unknown. We report the widespread export of H2 across the Atlantis Massif oceanic core complex (30°N, Mid-Atlantic Ridge; up to 44 nM), which is distinct from the circulation system feeding the Lost City Hydrothermal Field (LCHF) on the massif’s southern wall. Methane (CH4) abundances are generally low to undetectable (<3 nM) in fluids that are not derived from the LCHF. Reducing fluids exit the seafloor over a wide geographical area and depth range, including the summit of the massif and along steep areas of mass wasting east of the field. The depth of the fluids in the water column and their H2/CH4 ratios indicate that some are sourced separately from the LCHF. We argue that extensive H2 export is the natural consequence of fluid flow pathways strongly influenced by tectonic features and the volume and density changes that occur when ultramafic rocks react to form serpentinites, producing H2 as a by-product. Furthermore, the circulation of H2-rich fluids through uplifted mantle rocks at moderate temperatures provides geographically expansive and stable environmental conditions for the early evolution of biochemical pathways. These results provide insight into the spatial extent of H2- and CH4-bearing fluids associated with serpentinization, independent of the focused flow emanating from the LCHF.

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“…Otto Warburg helped to unravel a good many of the chemical transformations germane to the reactions that keep cells alive [6,7]. Today, we know a great deal about how cells transform molecules during the process of growth (physiology, the chemical reactions of growth) and how the information that directs the synthesis of a new cell is stored and retrieved, but the origins problem of how such reactions started remains, although some newer findings do harbor hints of progress in that they identify a distinct chemical connection between geochemical reactions and what might have been the first biochemical reactions [8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hydrolysis of RNA has traditionally been seen as an insurmountable problem for hydrothermal vents, and it still is in some circles [21]. Yet it is only a problem if one believes in an RNA world that exists in free aqueous solution, as in typical laboratory experiments, because alkaline hydrothermal vents harbor many local environments of low water activity [8].…”

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confidence: 99%

To What Inanimate Matter Are We Most Closely Related and Does the Origin of Life Harbor Meaning?

2021

Self Cite

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The question concerning the meaning of life is important, but it immediately confronts the present authors with insurmountable obstacles from a philosophical standpoint, as it would require us to define not only what we hold to be life, but what we hold to be meaning in addition, requiring us to do both in a properly researched context. We unconditionally surrender to that challenge. Instead, we offer a vernacular, armchair approach to life’s origin and meaning, with some layman’s thoughts on the meaning of origins as viewed from the biologist’s standpoint. One can observe that biologists generally approach the concept of biological meaning in the context of evolution. This is the basis for the broad resonance behind Dobzhansky’s appraisal that “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”. Biologists try to understand living things in the historical context of how they arose, without giving much thought to the definition of what life or living things are, which for a biologist is usually not an interesting question in the practical context of daily dealings with organisms. Do humans generally understand life’s meaning in the context of history? If we consider the problem of life’s origin, the question of what constitutes a living thing becomes somewhat more acute for the biologist, though not more answerable, because it is inescapable that there was a time when there were no organisms on Earth, followed by a time when there were, the latter time having persisted in continuity to the present. This raises the question of where, in that transition, chemicals on Earth became alive, requiring, in turn, a set of premises for how life arose in order to conceptualize the problem in relation to organisms we know today, including ourselves, which brings us to the point of this paper: In the same way that cultural narratives for origins always start with a setting, scientific narratives for origins also always start with a setting, a place on Earth or elsewhere where we can imagine what happened for the sake of structuring both the problem and the narrative for its solution. This raises the question of whether scientific origins settings convey meaning to humans in that they suggest to us from what kind of place and what kinds of chemicals we are descended, that is, to which inanimate things we are most closely related.

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The ambivalent role of water at the origins of life

Cited by 46 publications

References 182 publications

‘Whole Organism’, Systems Biology, and Top-Down Criteria for Evaluating Scenarios for the Origin of Life

‘Whole Organism’, Systems Biology, and Top-Down Criteria for Evaluating Scenarios for the Origin of Life

Extensive decentralized hydrogen export from the Atlantis Massif

To What Inanimate Matter Are We Most Closely Related and Does the Origin of Life Harbor Meaning?

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