Special Issue "Origin of Life 2011"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Jack Green
Department of Geological Sciences, California State University Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90840-3902, USA
Website: http://www.csulb.edu/colleges/cnsm/departments/geology/people/
E-Mail:
Phone: +1 562 985 4198
Fax: +1 562 985 8638
Interests: volcanic mechanisms; protolife in archean fumaroles

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Robert Root-Bernstein
Department of Physiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823 USA
Website: https://www.msu.edu/~rootbern/
E-Mail:
Interests: prebiotic chemical ecology; origins of life; origins of genetic code; origins of homochirality; molecular complementarity; origins of cellular transporters and receptors; STEM education; scientific creativity

Dear Colleagues,

Origin of life research needs to question assumptions and search for integration. For example, most authorities assert that water is necessary for the emergence of life, but if it were not, what new possibilities emerge? Where life depends on water , there are two candidate origins, exogenic (cometary) and endogenic (volcanic or cryovolcanic).How does the origin of water affect the possibility, localization and timing of reactions necessary to water-based life? There is water at the poles of our moon and on two of the moons of Saturn, Enceladus and Titan, much of this is in the form of ice mixed with hydrocarbons.  Might these conditions also give rise to life? Can we integrate these various questions by thinking about the origin of life not as a question of specific molecules coming into being (an RNA-  or protein- or lipid- or sugar-world) but as geologically and geographically-localized chemical ecologies comprised of complex, interactive families of molecules spontaneously giving rise to the ordered constructs when their complexity reaches some critical cusp? Can we relate such geochemical ecologies to the specific forms of life that evolve, thereby explaining  the emergence of sulphur-utilizing bacteria in one environment, photosynthetic bacteria in another, and perhaps arsenic-utilizing ones in  a third? Questions like these are designed to attract submissions to this special volume that challenge our assumptions, suggest novel interrelationships or present original integrative theories. What have we missed? What kinds of research should we be doing that we are not? What uncut gems have we overlooked or lost by ignoring past classics such as J. D. Bernal’s Origin of Life or Harold Morowitz’s Mayonnaise and the Origin of Life? We encourage contributors to this volume to facet those gems and to discover some new one as well!

Jack Green
Bob Root-Bernstein
Guest Editors

Submission

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Related Special Issues

Feature Papers in Life
Origin of Life in IJMS

• water
• GFAJ-1
• eenceladus
• titan
• moon
• LCROSSS
• Chandrayaan-1
• geochemical
• ecology
• integrativetheory
• complementarity

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Collective Quantum Phenomena in Systems of Biomolecules: The Transition from Non-Living to Living Matter
Authors: Nicola Poccia, Alessio Ansuini and Antonio Bianconi
Affiliation: Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; E-Mail: antonio.bianconi@uniroma1.it (A.B.)
Abstract: This review paper is focused on the transition from non-living to living state of biological matter as the result of the interplay of collective critical fluctuations. The possible scenarios of quantum critical points will be presented focusing on percolation transitions proposed first by Giorgio Careri. Collective quantum phenomena for interacting families of biomolecules spontaneously selected because of their capability to realize a shape resonance are described. A scenario where the bioparticles as a set of quantum oscillators that interact each other exhibiting a finite numbers of shape resonance frequencies will be presented. The cyclic variations of the asymmetric double wells is proposed to have the same cyclic period of the shape resonance frequency. In this landscape we discuss the role of the stochastic resonance as a possible process in order to elicit collective organized behaviour out of the noise.

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Origin of Evolution versus Origin of Life
Author: Marc Tessera
Affiliation: 2 avenue du 11 novembre 1918, 92190 Meudon, France; E-Mail: marc.tessera@wanadoo.fr
Abstract: The question of the primordial ancestor must be approached through the search for the origin of evolution, not through the search for the origin of life. There is a major issue with the concept of life as it is impossible to be defined, thus is not a scientific but a metaphysical concept. On the contrary evolution may be defined by as few as three conditions. These do not necessarily involve biopolymers. However such approach must give clues to explain the emergence of multiple lineages to allow darwinian natural selection. A plausible solution exists within an autotrophic lipidic vesicle-based model that is presented. The model requires the existence of hydrothermal sites such as the Lost City Hydrothermal Field leading to specific constraints. For this reason Mars and Europa may be questioned as possible cradles of evolution. If we replace the search for the origin of life by the one for the origin of evolution our priority first is to find a consensus on the minimal conditions that would allow evolution to emerge and persist anywhere in the universe.

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Organic Compounds Formed in Simulated Atmosphere of Titan
Authors: T. Taniuchi, Yoshinori Takano and K. Kobayashi
Affiliation: Institute of Biogeosciences, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), 2-15 Natsushima, Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan; E-Mail: takano@jamstec.go.jp (Y.T.)
Abstract: Organic haze aerosols shrouding Saturn’s moon Titan have been studied by satelite observations (e.g., Cassini/Huygens mission) and simulated laboratory experiments. Here we report laboratory experiments using proton irradiation that simulate the environment near Titan surface. After pyrolysis of the Titan's tholin-like complex organics (<1000 Da) that formed from simulated Titan atmosphere with proton irradiation, m/z 27 and 17, which corresponded HCN and NH3 respectively, were detected in main products. After hydrolysis of the complex organics, amino acid enantiomers were identified by GC/MS and MALDI-TOF-MS. The present result can strongly suggest that cosmic rays could be effective energy source for the production of complex organics in the atmosphere of Titan.

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Stardust, Supernovae, and the Chirality of the Amino Acids
Authors: Richard N. Boyd ¹, Toshitaka Kajino ^2,3 and Takashi Onaka ³
Affiliations: ¹ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94551, USA; E-Mail: boyd11@llnl.gov
² National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo, Japan; E-Mail: kajino@nao.ac.jp (T.K.)
³ Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; E-Mail: onaka@astron.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp (T.O.)
Abstract: A mechanism for creating a preferred chirality in the amino acids, the building blocks of the proteins, that involves global selection of one chirality by interactions between the amino acids and neutrinos from core-collapse supernovae is defined. The selection involves the dependence of the interaction cross sections on the orientations of the spins of the neutrinos and the 14N nuclei in the amino acids, or in precursor molecules, which in turn couple to the molecular chirality. The subsequent chemical evolution and galactic mixing would ultimately populate the Galaxy with the selected species. The resulting amino acids could either be the source thereof on Earth, or could have triggered the chirality that was ultimately achieved for Earth’s amino acids.

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Academic Implications of Lunar Water Resources and in the Origin of Lunar Protolife
Author: Jack Green
Affiliation: Department of Geological Sciences, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA; E-Mail: jgreen3@csulb.edu
Abstract: Water ice has been discovered on the moon by radar backscatter at the north pole and by spectrometry at the south pole in the Cabeus crater with an extrapolated volume of both poles of 10¹⁵ liters. Various exogenic and endogenic sources of this water have been proposed. This paper focuses on endogenic water sources by fumaroles and hot springs in shadowed polar craters. A survey of theoretical and morphological details supports a volcanic model. Release of water and other constituents by defluidization over geological time was intensified in the Hadean eon (4600+ to 4000 my). Intensification factors include higher heat flow by now-extinct radionuclides, tidal flexing and higher core temperatures. Lesser gravity would promote deeper bubble nucleation in lunar magmas, slower rise rates of gases and enhanced subsidence of lunar caldera floors. Hadean volcanism would likely have been more intense and regional in nature as opposed to suture-controlled location of calderas in Phanerozoic Benioff-style subduction environments. Seventy-seven morphological, remote sensing and return sample features were categorized into five categories ranging from a volcano-tectonic origin only to impact origin only. Scores for the most logical scenario were 69 to 8 in favor of lunar volcanism. Ingredients in the Cabeus plume analysis showed many volcanic fluids and their derivatives plus a large amount of mercury. Mercury-rich fumaroles are well documented on earth in large quantities in the eruption cloud of the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua and are virtually absent in cometary gases and solids. There are no mercury anomalies in terrestrial impact craters. Volcanic fluids and their derivatives in lunar shadow can theoretically evolve into protolife. Energy for this evolution can be provided by vent flow charging intensified in the lunar Hadean and by charge separation on freezing fumarolic fluids in shadow. Fischer-Tropsch reactions on hydrothermal clays can yield lipids, polycyclic aromatic hyrocarbons and amino acids. Soluble polyphosphates are available in volcanic fluids as well as vital catalysts such as tungsten. We conclude that the high volume of polar water resources supports the likelihood of lunar volcanism and that lunar volcanism supports the likelihood of protolife.

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Molecular Basis for Chiral Selection in RNA Aminoacylation
Author: Koji Tamura
Affiliation: Department of Biological Science and Technology, Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan and PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan;
E-Mail: koji@rs.tus.ac.jp
Abstract: The chiral-selective aminoacylation of an RNA minihelix is a potential progenitor to modern tRNA-based protein synthesis using L-amino acids. This article describes the molecular basis for this chiral selection. The extended double helical form of an RNA minihelix with a CCA triplet (acceptor of an amino acid), an aminoacyl phosphate donor nucleotide (mimic of aminoacyl-AMP), and a bridging nucleotide facilitates chiral-selective aminoacylation. Energetically, the reaction is characterized by a downhill reaction wherein an amino acid migrates from a high-energy acyl phosphate linkage to a lower-energy carboxyl ester linkage. The reaction occurs under the restriction that the nucleophilic attack of O, from 3′-OH in the terminal CCA, to C, from C=O in the acyl phosphate linkage, must occur at a Bürgi–Dunitz angle, which is defined as the O-C=O angle of approximately 105°. The extended double helical form results in a steric hindrance at the side chain of the amino acid leading to chiral preference combined with multiple cation coordinations in the amino acid and the phosphate oxygen. Such a system could have developed into the protein biosynthetic system with an exclusively chiral component (L-amino acids) via (proto) ribosomes.