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Origin Of Life

All articles tagged with #origin of life

Earth and Life: A Four-Billion-Year Dialogue
science11 days ago

Earth and Life: A Four-Billion-Year Dialogue

Nature's book review of Andrew Knoll's Earth & Life argues that life and Earth have co-evolved in a four-billion-year dialogue, with geobiology showing how microorganisms and planetary processes shaped Earth's atmosphere, especially oxygen via the Great Oxidation Event; Knoll contends that interpreting Earth's past requires assembling fragmentary rock records, testing hypotheses, and embracing uncertainty, while offering lessons for understanding modern climate change and the search for life on other planets.

via Nature|
#climate-change#earth-history#geobiology
One Genetic Code, Two Beginnings: A Fresh Take on Life’s Origins
science14 days ago

One Genetic Code, Two Beginnings: A Fresh Take on Life’s Origins

A Science Advances study argues bacteria and archaea inherited one ancient genetic code but independently completed cellular metabolism, effectively yielding one origin of the genetic code and two origins of life. The model suggests LUCA relied on environmental chemistry and metals to drive core reactions, with each lineage later filling in missing metabolism with its own enzymes. Five cases of convergent, structurally distinct enzymes underlie these separate paths. The idea is provocative and tentative, contingent on more archaeal genomes and experiments, and does not imply two abiogenesis events—merely two autonomous metabolic completions after a shared genetic root.

via Space Daily|
#convergent-evolution#hydrothermal-vents#luca
LUCA Dates Back 4.2 Billion Years, Rewriting the Story of Life
science16 days ago

LUCA Dates Back 4.2 Billion Years, Rewriting the Story of Life

New analysis places LUCA—the Last Universal Common Ancestor—on Earth about 4.2 billion years ago, roughly 400 million years after Earth's formation, based on genetic mutation rates and shared cellular machinery. The study suggests LUCA was a simple prokaryote with an immune system and likely lived in a recycling microbial ecosystem, meaning all modern life traces back to this ancient ancestor, while the exact path from LUCA to later life remains to be fully understood.

via Yahoo|
#biology#evolution#last-universal-common-ancestor
Two Separate Beginnings: Study Finds Bacteria and Archaea Metabolism Emerged Independently
science23 days ago

Two Separate Beginnings: Study Finds Bacteria and Archaea Metabolism Emerged Independently

A Science Advances study proposes life on Earth may have arisen twice, with bacteria and archaea independently evolving metabolism before LUCA, suggesting two roots of life rather than a single lineage; enzymes may have been preceded by environmental metals and four catalytic phases led proto-cells to free-living status after their split.

via ScienceAlert|
#archaea#bacteria#luca
Abiogenesis: how life may have begun from nonliving matter
features1 month ago

Abiogenesis: how life may have begun from nonliving matter

Abiogenesis refers to the emergence of life from nonliving matter through chemical processes. While there is no consensus on exactly how it happened on early Earth, theories include lightning-driven chemistry that could form amino acids and sugars and reactions at deep-sea vents. It’s distinct from the older idea of spontaneous generation, which Louis Pasteur disproved in the 1860s by showing microbes arise from preexisting microbes.

via Live Science|
#abiogenesis#chemistry#evolution
Sugar from space: first interstellar detection hints at life's cosmic origins
science1 month ago

Sugar from space: first interstellar detection hints at life's cosmic origins

Astronomers detected erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar, in a Milky Way center molecular cloud (G+0.693−0.027) using the Yebes 40m and IRAM, finding it surprisingly abundant and likely formed in interstellar ices; they estimate 0.5–50 million tonnes could have been delivered to Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, suggesting space-made sugars may have helped seed Earth's early metabolism and possibly hinting at other sugars like ribose in space.

via BBC Sky at Night Magazine|
#astrochemistry#interstellar-space#molecular-cloud
SpudCells Divide Briefly, Offering Clues About Minimal Life
science1 month ago

SpudCells Divide Briefly, Offering Clues About Minimal Life

A Minnesota team built a simplified, membrane-encased system that imports nutrients and uses viral components to copy DNA, creating 'SpudCells' that feed, grow, and undergo a few rounds of division before genome pieces drift and are lost; the division is driven by merging with a food membrane and pore-protein clumping, enabling natural selection in this engineered protocell—useful for studying origin-of-life questions but not a true primitive cell.

via Ars Technica|
#membrane#origin-of-life#protocell
Researchers Build the First Synthetic Cell From Nonliving Chemistry
science1 month ago

Researchers Build the First Synthetic Cell From Nonliving Chemistry

Scientists have built SpudCell, a synthetic cell assembled from nonliving chemical components that can feed, grow and replicate for about five generations; though far simpler than natural cells and requiring externally supplied ribosomes, the work marks a milestone in synthetic biology toward understanding life's origins and enabling future bioengineering, with safety safeguards discussed and the core technology to be shared openly via Biotic.

via CNN|
#biosafety#open-source-biology#origin-of-life
Lab recreates ancient hot-spring networks, yielding protocells
science4 months ago

Lab recreates ancient hot-spring networks, yielding protocells

Researchers built a 3D-printed, networked system of hot-spring pools controlled by an Arduino; through repeated wet-dry cycling, the setup produced lipid vesicles that encapsulated RNA, forming crude protocells and advancing a more realistic model of how life’s building blocks may have formed in Earth’s early hydrothermal fields.

via Indian Defence Review|
#hot-springs#origin-of-life#prebiotic-chemistry
A Tiny RNA Enzyme Edges the RNA World Toward Self-Replication
science4 months ago

A Tiny RNA Enzyme Edges the RNA World Toward Self-Replication

Researchers report QT45, a small polymerase ribozyme that can copy its own RNA and its template, demonstrating two crucial steps toward self-replication and bolstering the RNA world hypothesis; while not yet fully self-replicating, QT45 is smaller and more plausible to arise in prebiotic conditions than earlier ribozymes, discovered by screening trillions of random RNAs under cold conditions, with next steps to improve speed and yield.

via ScienceAlert|
#origin-of-life#qt45#ribozyme
Ancient Microbes May Have Emerged in Earth's Harsh Hadean Era
science5 months ago

Ancient Microbes May Have Emerged in Earth's Harsh Hadean Era

New geochemical data and molecular-clock analysis suggest life could have arisen during Earth's fiery Hadean period, about 4.4–4.2 billion years ago, with LUCA as the Last Universal Common Ancestor and LECA leading to modern eukaryotes; evidence points to liquid water despite extreme conditions, and ongoing genome recovery efforts may further refine when these ancestral stages appeared.

via indiandefencereview.com|
#hadean#leca#luca
Ryugu Samples Show All Five Nucleobases, Hinting Life’s Ingredients Arrived from Space
space-and-spaceflight5 months ago

Ryugu Samples Show All Five Nucleobases, Hinting Life’s Ingredients Arrived from Space

A Nature Astronomy study analyzing Hayabusa2’s Ryugu samples found all five nucleobases—the DNA/RNA building blocks—supporting the idea that asteroids delivered the ingredients for life to early Earth. The researchers note Ryugu has roughly equal amounts of purine and pyrimidine bases, unlike some meteorites, and that ammonia concentration may influence nucleobase formation, suggesting such molecules could have been more widespread in the early solar system.

via Gizmodo|
#astrobiology#hayabusa2#nucleobases