The Origin of Life: Chemical Evolution of a Metabolic System in a Mineral Honeycomb?
Open accessAbstract
For the RNA-world hypothesis to be ecologically feasible, selection mechanisms acting on replicator communities need to be invoked and the corresponding scenarios of molecular evolution specified. Complementing our previous models of chemical evolution on mineral surfaces, in which selection was the consequence of the limited mobility of macromolecules attached to the surface, here we offer an alternative realization of prebiotic group-level selection: the physical encapsulation of local replicator communities into the pores of the mineral substrate. Based on cellular automaton simulations we argue that the effect of group selection in a mineral honeycomb could have been efficient enough to keep prebiotic ribozymes of different specificities and replication rates coexistent, and their metabolic cooperation protected from extensive molecular parasitism. We suggest that mutants of the mild parasites persistent in the metabolic system can acquire useful functions such as replicase activity or the production of membrane components, thus opening the way for the evolution of the first autonomous protocells on Earth.
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Absorption to mineral surfaces or delimiting in a mineral pore does not provide for the need to have the enclosure constituents as part of the replicating catalytic network.
“Absorption to mineral surfaces or delimiting in a mineral pore [158,159], does not provide for the need to have the enclosure constituents as part of the replicating catalytic network.”
From Systems protobiology: origin of life in lipid catalytic networks (2018) · cites this paper as [158]
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- Authors
- Branciamore, S., Gallori, E., Szathmáry, E., & Czárán, T.
- Affiliations
- Beckman Research Institute (US)
- University of Florence (IT)
- Eötvös Loránd University (HU)
- Corresponding author
- Branciamore, Sergio
- Venue
- Journal of Molecular Evolution
- Published
- 2009-10-06
- Volume
- 69
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 458-469
- ISSN
- 0022-2844 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-1432
- OpenAlex
- W2092957896
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 3.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Molecular Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Repository of the Academy's Library (Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) (acceptedVersion)
- ELTE Digital Institutional Repository (EDIT) (Eötvös Loránd University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Florence Research (University of Florence) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Keywords
- origin of life, chemical evolution, RNA world, group selection, mineral surfaces, ribozymes, protocells, cellular automata, metabolic cooperation, membrane components
- MeSH terms
- Origin of Life, Aluminum Silicates, Animals, Models, Biological, RNA, RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase, RNA, Catalytic, Potassium Compounds, Evolution, Molecular, Evolution, Chemical
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