2019 June - 23 articles
Monosaccharides represent one of the major building blocks of life. One of the plausible prebiotic synthesis routes is the formose network, which generates sugars from C1 and C2 carbon sources in basic aqueous solution. We report on the feasibility o...
A great variety of molecular components is encapsulated in cells. Each of these components is replicated for cell reproduction. To address the essential role of the huge diversity of cellular components, we studied a model of protocells that convert...
Experimental studies of primordial metabolic evolution are based on multi-component reactions which typically result in highly complex product mixtures. The detection and structural assignment of these products crucially depends on sensitive and sele...
We argue for the existence of an RNA sequence, called the AL (for ALpha) sequence, which may have played a role at the origin of life; this role entailed the AL sequence helping generate the first peptide assemblies via a primitive network. These pep...
Protocells are supramolecular systems commonly used for numerous applications, such as the formation of self-evolvable systems, in systems chemistry and synthetic biology. Certain types of protocells imitate plausible prebiotic compartments, such as...
Soluble organic compositions of extraterrestrial samples offer valuable insights into the prebiotic organic chemistry of the solar system. This review provides a summary of the techniques commonly used for analyzing amino acids, amines, monocarboxyli...
The investigation of the abundant organic matter in primitive meteorite such as carbonaceous chondrites is of major interest in the field of origin of life. In this study, the soluble organic fraction of the Murchison meteorite was analyzed by atmosp...
The catalytic effects of complex minerals or meteorites are often mentioned as important factors for the origins of life. To assess the possible role of nanoconfinement within a catalyst consisting of montmorillonite (MMT) and the impact of local ele...
We have been studying simple prebiotic catalytic replicating networks as prototypes for modeling replication, complexification and Systems Chemistry. While living systems are always open and function far from equilibrium, these prebiotic networks may...
This study is a multi-technique investigation of the Paris carbonaceous chondrite directly applied on two selected 500 × 500 µm² areas of a millimetric fragment, without any chemical extraction. By mapping the partial hydration of th...
Phosphates are essential for modern metabolisms. A recent study reported a phosphate-free metabolic network and suggested that thioesters, rather than phosphates, could alleviate thermodynamic bottlenecks of network expansion. As a result, it was con...
Network autocatalysis, which is autocatalysis whereby a catalyst is not directly produced in a catalytic cycle, is likely to be more common in chemistry than direct autocatalysis is. Nevertheless, the kinetics of autocatalytic networks often does not...
Homocysteine is a non-proteinogenic sulfur-containing amino acid. Like cysteine, it can form disulfide bridges and complex metallic cations. It is also closely related to methionine, the first amino acid in the synthesis of all contemporary proteins....
This article is a brief review of research in the Kamchatka geothermal region initiated by David Deamer and the author in 1999. Results obtained over the last 20 years are described, including a seminal experiment in which biologically important orga...
Systems chemistry has been a key component of origin of life research, invoking models of life’s inception based on evolving molecular networks. One such model is the graded autocatalysis replication domain (GARD) formalism embodied in a lipid...
Filamentous, heterocyst-forming cyanobacteria are phototrophic multicellular organisms in which N2-fixing heterocysts and CO2-fixing vegetative cells exchange regulators and nutrients [...]
Pathways of standard genetic code evolution remain conserved and apparent, particularly upon analysis of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS) lineages. Despite having incompatible active site folds, class I and class II aaRS are homologs by sequence. Spe...
Meteorites have been found to be rich and highly diverse in organic compounds. Next to previous direct infusion high resolution mass spectrometry experiments (DI-HR-MS), we present here data-driven strategies to evaluate UPLC-Orbitrap MS analyses. Th...
In commemoration of his 80th birthday, this interview article engages David Deamer in some personal and scientific insights into his fifty year quest surrounding the question of “how can life begin” on the Earth or other worlds.
The production of complex molecules in ammonia–carbon dioxide ices is presumed to pass through species of formula H3N:CO2 with further addition of ammonia and carbon dioxide. One possible landmark, carbamic acid, H2NCOOH, has been implicated am...
The emergence of life in a prebiotic world is an enormous scientific question of paramount philosophical importance. Even when life (in any sense we can define it) can be observed and replicated in the laboratory, it is only an indication of one poss...
Cyanobacteria are photoautotrophic microorganisms present in almost all ecologically niches on Earth. They exist as single-cell or filamentous forms and the latter often contain specialized cells for N2 fixation known as heterocysts. Heterocysts aris...
A stress-free condition is considered for humans to be related to relaxation or happiness [...]
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