Although clearly not prebiotically plausible, I will show that DNA origami presents an excellent model to understand how early forms of cell walls made of nucleic acids could have formed in order to achieve non-spherically shaped protocells. By making use of simple self-assembly reactions, DNA origami are able to form large assemblies and stabilizing lattice networks on lipid membranes,...
Since Louis Pasteur, it was beyond imagination that life could thrive at temperatures above the boiling point of water as bacteria could be safely killed when incubated at 100°C. The discovery of Archaea as third domain of life did not only revolutionize the tree of life, but led to the identification of heat-loving organisms that thrive at temperatures up to 122°C. Many of these...
