scholarly journals Meteor Storms as a Window on the Delivery of Extraterrestrial Organic Matter to the Early Earth

2004 ◽  
Vol 213 ◽  
pp. 281-288
Author(s):  
P. Jenniskens
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Prebiotic Chemistry ◽  
Early Earth ◽  
Rarefied Flow ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
Prebiotic Molecules ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Recent Insight

The unique rarefied flow and flash heating in meteors creates physical conditions that can change exogenous organic matter into unique prebiotic molecules. with the exception of rare giant comet impacts, most infalling matter at the time of the origin of life was deposited in the atmosphere during the meteor phase. Much new data has been obtained from observations in the Leonid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign; a series of NASA and USAF sponsored Astrobiology missions that explored the 1998–2002 Leonid meteor storms. Here, we provide an overview of some of this recent insight, which provides a framework in which the prebiotic chemistry can be studied.

scholarly journals Implications of extraterrestrial material on the origin of life

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29B) ◽  
pp. 431-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Pasek
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Building Material ◽  
Organic Material ◽  
Prebiotic Chemistry ◽  
Prebiotic Molecules ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrolysis Of ◽  
Extraterrestrial Material ◽  
Endogenous Synthesis

AbstractMeteoritic organic material may provide the best perspective on prebiotic chemistry. Meteorites have also been invoked as a source of prebiotic material. This study suggests a caveat to extraterrestrial organic delivery: that prebiotic meteoritic organics were too dilute to promote prebiotic reactions. However, meteoritic material provides building material for endogenous synthesis of prebiotic molecules, such as by hydrolysis of extraterrestrial organic tars, and corrosion of phosphide minerals.

Autocatalytic chemical networks preceded proteins and RNA in evolution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana C. Xavier ◽  
Wim Hordijk ◽  
Stuart Kauffman ◽  
Mike Steel ◽  
William F. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Small Molecule ◽  
Metabolic Networks ◽  
Early Earth ◽  
Prebiotic Evolution ◽  
Biochemical Evolution ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Acids And Bases ◽  
Open Question

AbstractModern cells embody metabolic networks containing thousands of elements and form autocatalytic molecule sets that produce copies of themselves. How the first self-sustaining metabolic networks arose at life’ s origin is a major open question. Autocatalytic molecule sets smaller than metabolic networks were proposed as transitory intermediates at the origin of life, but evidence for their role in prebiotic evolution is lacking. Here we identify reflexively autocatalytic food-generated networks (RAFs)—self-sustaining networks that collectively catalyze all their reactions—embedded within microbial metabolism. RAFs in the metabolism of ancient anaerobic autotrophs that live from H2 and CO2 generate amino acids and bases, the monomeric components of protein and RNA, and acetyl-CoA, but amino acids and bases do not generate metabolic RAFs, indicating that small-molecule catalysis preceded polymers in biochemical evolution. RAFs uncover intermediate stages in the origin of metabolic networks, narrowing the gaps between early-Earth chemistry and life.

scholarly journals Impact-Induced Hydrothermal Systems on Early Earth: CH4 Production and the Origin of Life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazumu Kaneko ◽  
Yasuhito Sekine ◽  
Takazo Shibuya ◽  
Hisahiro Ueda ◽  
Natsumi Noda
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Systems ◽  
Early Earth ◽  
Ch4 Production ◽  
The Origin Of Life

scholarly journals Scum of the Earth: A Hypothesis for Prebiotic Multi-Compartmentalised Environments

Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 976
Author(s):  
Craig Robert Walton ◽  
Oliver Shorttle
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Prebiotic Chemistry ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Microbial Biofilms ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Rock Record ◽  
Universal Feature ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
New Hypothesis ◽  
Surface Environment

Compartmentalisation by bioenergetic membranes is a universal feature of life. The eventual compartmentalisation of prebiotic systems is therefore often argued to comprise a key step during the origin of life. Compartments may have been active participants in prebiotic chemistry, concentrating and spatially organising key reactants. However, most prebiotically plausible compartments are leaky or unstable, limiting their utility. Here, we develop a new hypothesis for an origin of life environment that capitalises upon, and mitigates the limitations of, prebiotic compartments: multi-compartmentalised layers in the near surface environment—a ’scum’. Scum-type environments benefit from many of the same ensemble-based advantages as microbial biofilms. In particular, scum layers mediate diffusion with the wider environments, favouring preservation and sharing of early informational molecules, along with the selective concentration of compatible prebiotic compounds. Biofilms are among the earliest traces imprinted by life in the rock record: we contend that prebiotic equivalents of these environments deserve future experimental investigation.

scholarly journals Ariel – a window to the origin of life on early earth?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Ferus ◽  
Vojtěch Adam ◽  
Giuseppe Cassone ◽  
Svatopluk Civiš ◽  
Václav Čuba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Early Earth ◽  
The Origin Of Life

Proliferating droplets formed via prebiotic polymerisation: the missing link between chemistry and biology on the origin of life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muneyuki Matsuo ◽  
Kensuke Kurihara
Keyword(s):  
Phase Separation ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Primitive Cell ◽  
Material Development ◽  
Steady Growth ◽  
Prebiotic Molecules ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Acid Thioesters ◽  
Liquid Liquid Phase Separation

Abstract The hypothesis that prebiotic molecules were transformed into polymers that evolved into proliferating molecular assemblages and eventually a primitive cell was first proposed about a hundred years ago. However, no proliferating model prebiotic system has yet been realised because different conditions are required for polymer generation and self-assembly of polymers. In this study, we identified conditions suitable for concurrent peptide generation and self-assembly, and we showed how a proliferating peptide-based droplet could be created by using synthesised amino acid thioesters as prebiotic monomers. Oligopeptides generated from the monomers spontaneously formed droplets through liquid–liquid phase separation in water. The droplets underwent a steady growth–division cycle by periodic addition of monomers through autocatalytic self-reproduction. Heterogeneous enrichment of RNA and lipids within droplets enabled RNA to protect the droplet from dissolution by lipids. These results provide experimental platforms for origin-of-life research and open up novel directions in peptide-based material development.

The origin of life in comets

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 321-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.M. Napier ◽  
J.T. Wickramasinghe ◽  
N.C. Wickramasinghe
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Aqueous Phase ◽  
Early Earth ◽  
Habitable Zone ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Terrestrial Environments ◽  
Prebiotic Environments ◽  
The Origin Of Life

AbstractMechanisms of interstellar panspermia have recently been identified whereby life, wherever it has originated, will disperse throughout the habitable zone of the Galaxy within a few billion years. This re-opens the question of where life originated. The interiors of comets, during their aqueous phase, seem to provide environments no less favourable for the origin of life than that of the early Earth. Their combined mass throughout the Galaxy overwhelms that of suitable terrestrial environments by about 20 powers of ten, while the lifetimes of friendly prebiotic environments within them exceeds that of localized terrestrial regions by another four or five powers of ten. We propose that the totality of comets around G-dwarf Sun-like stars offers an incomparably more probable setting for the origin of life than any that was available on the early Earth.

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