Sprecher
Beschreibung
The appearance of life at ~ 4 Ga was a result of complex geochemical events involving the interaction of primitive atmosphere, water, dissolved ions, and minerals leading to the abiotic (nonenzymatic) synthesis of biomolecule monomers or their precursors, that were selected from a complicated prebiotic molecular broth and polymerized into oligomers, and ultimately self-assembled to form the earliest life-like entities (protocells). The focus of our research is to discover the potential role of minerals and dissolved metal ions in these processes and in the development of transmembrane ion gradients that represent chemiosmotic potentials for driving protometabolic reactions. A long-standing question in this field is whether RNA, enzymes (proteins) or lipid membranes evolved first because in extant biology, each requires the other. We have hypothesized the MuSeCol model in which minerals and dissolved ions present in the Hadean geochemical environment catalyzed the synthesis of these biomolecules by mutual (Mu) coevolution with specific isomer selection (Se) from a complicated (C) prebiotic broth as well as promoted transmembrane pH gradients leading to the Origins of Life (OL). I will share results from some of our studies supporting this hypothesis.
