In the absence of complex biochemical machinery, the hypothetical precursors to the first biological cells (protocells) would be dependent on the self-organization of their components and physicochemical condit
A new paper from the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Houston Chemical Engineering Department and Chicago Center for the Origins of Life suggests rainwater could have helped create a meshy wall around protocells 3.8 billion years ago, a critical step in the transition ...
The latter approach is based on the use of molecule sets that can self-assemble into chemical aggregates and systems that will then be able to perform an increasingly more complex chemistry. These systems are precursors of protocells that preceded the emergence of ancestral cells. (B) Putative ...
Porous nanoreactors mimic the structures and functions of cells, providing an adaptable material with multiple functions and effects. These reactors can be nanoscale containers and shuttles or catalytic centres, drawing in reactants for cascading reactio
The origins of life require reliable energy sources. One feasible energy source has not been considered until recently. This is mechanical energy-work (Hansma, 2010, 2012). The spaces between moving muscovite mica sheets are the environment in which mechanical energy is hypothesized to have been ...
After emergence of protocells, the cellular energetic system (glycolysis) appears. RNA will emerge, and processes of replication, translation, and transcription will become separate. Genetic function will be kept in DNA, which will become double stranded. 5′ deoxyribonucleotides, which will be ...
The proteinosomes exhibited thermo-gated properties that were later exploited in subsequent publications to demonstrate a multitude of cell-mimicry functionalities. Article PubMed Google Scholar Sun, S. et al. Chemical signaling and functional activation in colloidosome‐based protocells. Small 12, ...
chemical reaction n (Chemistry) a process that involves changes in the structure and energy content of atoms, molecules, or ions but not their nuclei. Comparenuclear reaction Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000...
represents a very attractive option in the development of novel forms of biocontainment (Figure 1) since the synthetic elements in the organisms could not interact with the natural elements of the organisms in which they are inserted, nor with those of other organisms in the same environment, and...
Vesicles formed from single-chain amphiphiles (SCAs) such as fatty acids probably played an important role in the origin of life. A major criticism of the hypothesis that life arose in an early ocean hydrothermal environment is that hot temperatures, large pH gradients, high salinity and abundant...