1
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Stolar T, Pearce BK, Etter M, Truong KN, Ostojić T, Krajnc A, Mali G, Rossi B, Molčanov K, Lončarić I, Meštrović E, Užarević K, Grisanti L. Base-pairing of uracil and 2,6-diaminopurine: from cocrystals to photoreactivity. iScience 2024; 27:109894. [PMID: 38783999 PMCID: PMC11112615 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 12/18/2023] [Accepted: 05/01/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
We show that the non-canonical nucleobase 2,6-diaminopurine (D) spontaneously base pairs with uracil (U) in water and the solid state without the need to be attached to the ribose-phosphate backbone. Depending on the reaction conditions, D and U assemble in thermodynamically stable hydrated and anhydrated D-U base-paired cocrystals. Under UV irradiation, an aqueous solution of D-U base-pair undergoes photochemical degradation, while a pure aqueous solution of U does not. Our simulations suggest that D may trigger the U photodimerization and show that complementary base-pairing modifies the photochemical properties of nucleobases, which might have implications for prebiotic chemistry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomislav Stolar
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička c. 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
- Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Richard-Willstätter-Straße 11, 12489 Berlin, Germany
| | - Ben K.D. Pearce
- Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Martin Etter
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Khai-Nghi Truong
- Rigaku Europe SE, Hugenottenallee 167, 63263 Neu-Isenburg, Germany
| | - Tea Ostojić
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička c. 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Andraž Krajnc
- National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Gregor Mali
- National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Barbara Rossi
- Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, Strada Statale 14 km 163.5, 34149 Trieste, Italy
| | | | - Ivor Lončarić
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička c. 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Ernest Meštrović
- Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, University of Zagreb, Trg Marka Marulića 19, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | | | - Luca Grisanti
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička c. 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
- National Research Council - Materials Foundry Institute (CNR-IOM) c/o SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies), Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
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2
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Rodriguez LE, Altair T, Hermis NY, Jia TZ, Roche TP, Steller LH, Weber JM. Chapter 4: A Geological and Chemical Context for the Origins of Life on Early Earth. ASTROBIOLOGY 2024; 24:S76-S106. [PMID: 38498817 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2021.0139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/20/2024]
Abstract
Within the first billion years of Earth's history, the planet transformed from a hot, barren, and inhospitable landscape to an environment conducive to the emergence and persistence of life. This chapter will review the state of knowledge concerning early Earth's (Hadean/Eoarchean) geochemical environment, including the origin and composition of the planet's moon, crust, oceans, atmosphere, and organic content. It will also discuss abiotic geochemical cycling of the CHONPS elements and how these species could have been converted to biologically relevant building blocks, polymers, and chemical networks. Proposed environments for abiogenesis events are also described and evaluated. An understanding of the geochemical processes under which life may have emerged can better inform our assessment of the habitability of other worlds, the potential complexity that abiotic chemistry can achieve (which has implications for putative biosignatures), and the possibility for biochemistries that are vastly different from those on Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura E Rodriguez
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
- Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, Texas, USA. (Current)
| | - Thiago Altair
- Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos, Brazil
- Department of Chemistry, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA. (Current)
| | - Ninos Y Hermis
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
- Department of Physics and Space Sciences, University of Granada, Granada Spain. (Current)
| | - Tony Z Jia
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Tyler P Roche
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Luke H Steller
- Australian Centre for Astrobiology, and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia
| | - Jessica M Weber
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
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3
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Lai D, Hedlund BP, Mau RL, Jiao JY, Li J, Hayer M, Dijkstra P, Schwartz E, Li WJ, Dong H, Palmer M, Dodsworth JA, Zhou EM, Hungate BA. Resource partitioning and amino acid assimilation in a terrestrial geothermal spring. THE ISME JOURNAL 2023; 17:2112-2122. [PMID: 37741957 PMCID: PMC10579274 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-023-01517-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2023] [Revised: 08/31/2023] [Accepted: 09/13/2023] [Indexed: 09/25/2023]
Abstract
High-temperature geothermal springs host simplified microbial communities; however, the activities of individual microorganisms and their roles in the carbon cycle in nature are not well understood. Here, quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP) was used to track the assimilation of 13C-acetate and 13C-aspartate into DNA in 74 °C sediments in Gongxiaoshe Hot Spring, Tengchong, China. This revealed a community-wide preference for aspartate and a tight coupling between aspartate incorporation into DNA and the proliferation of aspartate utilizers during labeling. Both 13C incorporation into DNA and changes in the abundance of taxa during incubations indicated strong resource partitioning and a significant phylogenetic signal for aspartate incorporation. Of the active amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) identified by qSIP, most could be matched with genomes from Gongxiaoshe Hot Spring or nearby springs with an average nucleotide similarity of 99.4%. Genomes corresponding to aspartate primary utilizers were smaller, near-universally encoded polar amino acid ABC transporters, and had codon preferences indicative of faster growth rates. The most active ASVs assimilating both substrates were not abundant, suggesting an important role for the rare biosphere in the community response to organic carbon addition. The broad incorporation of aspartate into DNA over acetate by the hot spring community may reflect dynamic cycling of cell lysis products in situ or substrates delivered during monsoon rains and may reflect N limitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dengxun Lai
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA
| | - Brian P Hedlund
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
- Nevada Institute for Personalized Medicine, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
| | - Rebecca L Mau
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University and Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
| | - Jian-Yu Jiao
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Junhui Li
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University and Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
| | - Michaela Hayer
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University and Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
| | - Paul Dijkstra
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University and Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
| | - Egbert Schwartz
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University and Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
| | - Wen-Jun Li
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Hailiang Dong
- State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China and Department of Geology and Environmental Earth Science, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA
| | - Marike Palmer
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA
| | - Jeremy A Dodsworth
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - En-Min Zhou
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
- School of Resource Environment and Earth Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
| | - Bruce A Hungate
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University and Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
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4
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Tran QP, Yi R, Fahrenbach AC. Towards a prebiotic chemoton - nucleotide precursor synthesis driven by the autocatalytic formose reaction. Chem Sci 2023; 14:9589-9599. [PMID: 37712016 PMCID: PMC10498504 DOI: 10.1039/d3sc03185c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 08/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The formose reaction is often cited as a prebiotic source of sugars and remains one of the most plausible forms of autocatalysis on the early Earth. Herein, we investigated how cyanamide and 2-aminooxazole, molecules proposed to be present on early Earth and precursors for nonenzymatic ribonucleotide synthesis, mediate the formose reaction using HPLC, LC-MS and 1H NMR spectroscopy. Cyanamide was shown to delay the exponential phase of the formose reaction by reacting with formose sugars to form 2-aminooxazole and 2-aminooxazolines thereby diverting some of these sugars from the autocatalytic cycle, which nonetheless remains intact. Masses for tetrose and pentose aminooxazolines, precursors for nucleotide synthesis including TNA and RNA, were also observed. The results of this work in the context of the chemoton model are further discussed. Additionally, we highlight other prebiotically plausible molecules that could have mediated the formose reaction and alternative prebiotic autocatalytic systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Quoc Phuong Tran
- School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
- Australian Centre for Astrobiology, University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
| | - Ruiqin Yi
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo 152-8550 Japan
| | - Albert C Fahrenbach
- School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
- Australian Centre for Astrobiology, University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
- UNSW RNA Institute, University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
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Sánchez-García L, Lezcano MÁ, Carrizo D, Severino R, García-Villadangos M, Cady SL, Warren-Rhodes K, Cabrol NA, Parro V. Assessing siliceous sinter matrices for long-term preservation of lipid biomarkers in opaline sinter deposits analogous to Mars in El Tatio (Chile). THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 870:161765. [PMID: 36702265 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2022] [Revised: 01/16/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Subaerial hydrothermal systems are of great interest for paleobiology and astrobiology as plausible candidate environments to support the origin of life on Earth that offer a unique and interrelated atmosphere-hydrosphere-lithosphere interface. They harbor extensive sinter deposits of high preservation potential that are promising targets in the search for traces of possible extraterrestrial life on Hesperian Mars. However, long-term quality preservation is paramount for recognizing biosignatures in old samples and there are still significant gaps in our understanding of the impact and extent of taphonomy processes on life fingerprints. Here, we propose a study based on lipid biomarkers -highly resistant cell-membrane components- to investigate the effects of silicification on their preservation in hydrothermal opaline sinter. We explore the lipid biomarkers profile in three sinter deposits of up to ~3000 years from El Tatio, one of the best Martian analogs on Earth. The lipid profile in local living biofilms is used as a fresh counterpart of the fossil biomarkers in the centuries-old sinter deposits to qualitatively assess the taphonomy effects of silicification on the lipid's preservation. Despite the geological alteration, the preserved lipids retained a depleted stable-carbon isotopic fingerprint characteristic of biological sources, result highly relevant for astrobiology. The data allowed us to estimate for the first time the degradation rate of lipid biomarkers in sinter deposits from El Tatio, and to assess the time preservation framework of opaline silica. Auxiliary techniques of higher taxonomic resolution (DNA sequencing and metaproteomics) helped in the reconstruction of the paleobiology. The lipids were the best-preserved biomolecules, whereas the detection of DNA and proteins dropped considerably from 5 cm depth. These findings provide new insights into taphonomy processes affecting life fingerprints in hydrothermal deposits and serves as a useful baseline for assessing the time window for recovering unambiguous signs of past life on Earth and beyond.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Daniel Carrizo
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA), 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain
| | - Rita Severino
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA), 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain; Dept. of Physics and Mathematics and Automatics, University of Alcalá (UAH), 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | | | - Sherry L Cady
- Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, United States
| | - Kim Warren-Rhodes
- Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute, CA 94043, United States
| | - Nathalie A Cabrol
- Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute, CA 94043, United States
| | - Víctor Parro
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA), 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain
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Finkel PL, Carrizo D, Parro V, Sánchez-García L. An Overview of Lipid Biomarkers in Terrestrial Extreme Environments with Relevance for Mars Exploration. ASTROBIOLOGY 2023; 23:563-604. [PMID: 36880883 PMCID: PMC10150655 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2022.0083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Lipid molecules are organic compounds, insoluble in water, and based on carbon-carbon chains that form an integral part of biological cell membranes. As such, lipids are ubiquitous in life on Earth, which is why they are considered useful biomarkers for life detection in terrestrial environments. These molecules display effective membrane-forming properties even under geochemically hostile conditions that challenge most of microbial life, which grants lipids a universal biomarker character suitable for life detection beyond Earth, where a putative biological membrane would also be required. What discriminates lipids from nucleic acids or proteins is their capacity to retain diagnostic information about their biological source in their recalcitrant hydrocarbon skeletons for thousands of millions of years, which is indispensable in the field of astrobiology given the time span that the geological ages of planetary bodies encompass. This work gathers studies that have employed lipid biomarker approaches for paleoenvironmental surveys and life detection purposes in terrestrial environments with extreme conditions: hydrothermal, hyperarid, hypersaline, and highly acidic, among others; all of which are analogous to current or past conditions on Mars. Although some of the compounds discussed in this review may be abiotically synthesized, we focus on those with a biological origin, namely lipid biomarkers. Therefore, along with appropriate complementary techniques such as bulk and compound-specific stable carbon isotope analysis, this work recapitulates and reevaluates the potential of lipid biomarkers as an additional, powerful tool to interrogate whether there is life on Mars, or if there ever was.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pablo L Finkel
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, Madrid, Spain
- Department of Physics and Mathematics and Department of Automatics, University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Victor Parro
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, Madrid, Spain
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7
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Subbotin V, Fiksel G. Exploring the Lipid World Hypothesis: A Novel Scenario of Self-Sustained Darwinian Evolution of the Liposomes. ASTROBIOLOGY 2023; 23:344-357. [PMID: 36716277 PMCID: PMC9986030 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2021.0161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
According to the Lipid World hypothesis, life on Earth originated with the emergence of amphiphilic assemblies in the form of lipid micelles and vesicles (liposomes). However, the mechanism of appearance of the information molecules (ribozymes/RNA) accompanying that process, considered obligatory for Darwinian evolution, is unclear. We propose a novel scenario of self-sustained Darwinian evolution of the liposomes driven by ever-present natural phenomena: solar UV radiation, day/night cycle, gravity, and the formation of liposomes in an aqueous media. The central tenet of this scenario is the liposomes' encapsulation of the heavy solutes, followed by their gravitational submerging in the water. The submerged liposomes, being protected from the damaging UV radiation, acquire the longevity necessary for autocatalytic replication of amphiphiles, their mutation, and the selection of those amphiphilic assemblies that provide the greatest membrane stability. These two sets of adaptive compositional information (heavy content and amphiphilic assemblies design) generate a population of liposomes with self-replication/reproduction properties, which are amendable to mutation, inheritance, and selection, thereby establishing Darwinian progression. Temporary and spatial expansion of this liposomal population will provide the basis for the next evolutionary step-a transition of accidentally entrapped RNA precursor molecules into complex functional molecules, such as ribozymes/RNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vladimir Subbotin
- Department of Human Oncology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Gennady Fiksel
- Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Westall F, Brack A, Fairén AG, Schulte MD. Setting the geological scene for the origin of life and continuing open questions about its emergence. FRONTIERS IN ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCES 2023; 9:1095701. [PMID: 38274407 PMCID: PMC7615569 DOI: 10.3389/fspas.2022.1095701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
The origin of life is one of the most fundamental questions of humanity. It has been and is still being addressed by a wide range of researchers from different fields, with different approaches and ideas as to how it came about. What is still incomplete is constrained information about the environment and the conditions reigning on the Hadean Earth, particularly on the inorganic ingredients available, and the stability and longevity of the various environments suggested as locations for the emergence of life, as well as on the kinetics and rates of the prebiotic steps leading to life. This contribution reviews our current understanding of the geological scene in which life originated on Earth, zooming in specifically on details regarding the environments and timescales available for prebiotic reactions, with the aim of providing experimenters with more specific constraints. Having set the scene, we evoke the still open questions about the origin of life: did life start organically or in mineralogical form? If organically, what was the origin of the organic constituents of life? What came first, metabolism or replication? What was the time-scale for the emergence of life? We conclude that the way forward for prebiotic chemistry is an approach merging geology and chemistry, i.e., far-from-equilibrium, wet-dry cycling (either subaerial exposure or dehydration through chelation to mineral surfaces) of organic reactions occurring repeatedly and iteratively at mineral surfaces under hydrothermal-like conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - André Brack
- Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire, CNRS, Orléans, France
| | - Alberto G. Fairén
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA), Madrid, Spain
- Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States
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9
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Roy S, Sengupta S. The Effect of Environment on the Evolution and Proliferation of Protocells of Increasing Complexity. LIFE (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 12:life12081227. [PMID: 36013406 PMCID: PMC9410160 DOI: 10.3390/life12081227] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2022] [Revised: 08/01/2022] [Accepted: 08/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The formation, growth, division and proliferation of protocells containing RNA strands is an important step in ensuring the viability of a mixed RNA-lipid world. Experiments and computer simulations indicate that RNA encapsulated inside protocells can favor the protocell, promoting its growth while protecting the system from being over-run by selfish RNA sequences. Recent work has also shown that the rolling-circle replication mechanism can be harnessed to ensure the rapid growth of RNA strands and the probabilistic emergence and proliferation of protocells with functionally diverse ribozymes. Despite these advances in our understanding of a primordial RNA-lipid world, key questions remain about the ideal environment for the formation of protocells and its role in regulating the proliferation of functionally complex protocells. The hot spring hypothesis suggests that mineral-rich regions near hot springs, subject to dry-wet cycles, provide an ideal environment for the origin of primitive protocells. We develop a computational model to study protocellular evolution in such environments that are distinguished by the occurrence of three distinct phases, a wet phase, followed by a gel phase, and subsequently by a dry phase. We determine the conditions under which protocells containing multiple types of ribozymes can evolve and proliferate in such regions. We find that diffusion in the gel phase can inhibit the proliferation of complex protocells with the extent of inhibition being most significant when a small fraction of protocells is eliminated during environmental cycling. Our work clarifies how the environment can shape the evolution and proliferation of complex protocells.
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10
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Malaterre C, Jeancolas C, Nghe P. The Origin of Life: What Is the Question? ASTROBIOLOGY 2022; 22:851-862. [PMID: 35594335 PMCID: PMC9298494 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2021.0162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2021] [Accepted: 03/12/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The question of the origin of life is a tenacious question that challenges many branches of science but is also extremely multifaceted. While prebiotic chemistry and micropaleontology reformulate the question as that of explaining the appearance of life on Earth in the deep past, systems chemistry and synthetic biology typically understand the question as that of demonstrating the synthesis of novel living matter from nonliving matter independently of historical constraints. The objective of this contribution is to disentangle the different readings of the origin-of-life question found in science. We identify three main dimensions along which the question can be differently constrained depending on context: historical adequacy, natural spontaneity, and similarity to life-as-we-know-it. We argue that the epistemic status of what needs to be explained-the explanandum-varies from approximately true when the origin-of-life question is the most constrained to entirely speculative when the constraints are the most relaxed. This difference in epistemic status triggers a shift in the nature of the origin-of-life question from an explanation-seeking question in the most constrained case to a fact-establishing question in the lesser-constrained ones. We furthermore explore how answers to some interpretations of the origin-of-life questions matter for other interpretations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christophe Malaterre
- Département de philosophie, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montréal, Canada
- Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (CIRST), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montréal, Canada
| | - Cyrille Jeancolas
- Laboratoire Biophysique et Évolution, UMR Chimie Biologie Innovation 8231, ESPCI Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Paris, France
- Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale, Collège de France, Paris, France
| | - Philippe Nghe
- Laboratoire Biophysique et Évolution, UMR Chimie Biologie Innovation 8231, ESPCI Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Paris, France
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11
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Buessecker S, Palmer M, Lai D, Dimapilis J, Mayali X, Mosier D, Jiao JY, Colman DR, Keller LM, St John E, Miranda M, Gonzalez C, Gonzalez L, Sam C, Villa C, Zhuo M, Bodman N, Robles F, Boyd ES, Cox AD, St Clair B, Hua ZS, Li WJ, Reysenbach AL, Stott MB, Weber PK, Pett-Ridge J, Dekas AE, Hedlund BP, Dodsworth JA. An essential role for tungsten in the ecology and evolution of a previously uncultivated lineage of anaerobic, thermophilic Archaea. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3773. [PMID: 35773279 PMCID: PMC9246946 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31452-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Trace metals have been an important ingredient for life throughout Earth's history. Here, we describe the genome-guided cultivation of a member of the elusive archaeal lineage Caldarchaeales (syn. Aigarchaeota), Wolframiiraptor gerlachensis, and its growth dependence on tungsten. A metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) of W. gerlachensis encodes putative tungsten membrane transport systems, as well as pathways for anaerobic oxidation of sugars probably mediated by tungsten-dependent ferredoxin oxidoreductases that are expressed during growth. Catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in-situ hybridization (CARD-FISH) and nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (nanoSIMS) show that W. gerlachensis preferentially assimilates xylose. Phylogenetic analyses of 78 high-quality Wolframiiraptoraceae MAGs from terrestrial and marine hydrothermal systems suggest that tungsten-associated enzymes were present in the last common ancestor of extant Wolframiiraptoraceae. Our observations imply a crucial role for tungsten-dependent metabolism in the origin and evolution of this lineage, and hint at a relic metabolic dependence on this trace metal in early anaerobic thermophiles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steffen Buessecker
- Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
| | - Marike Palmer
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
| | - Dengxun Lai
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA
| | - Joshua Dimapilis
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - Xavier Mayali
- Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
| | - Damon Mosier
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
- Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Jian-Yu Jiao
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
| | - Daniel R Colman
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
| | - Lisa M Keller
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
| | - Emily St John
- Department of Biology, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Michelle Miranda
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - Cristina Gonzalez
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - Lizett Gonzalez
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - Christian Sam
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - Christopher Villa
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - Madeline Zhuo
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - Nicholas Bodman
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - Fernando Robles
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - Eric S Boyd
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
| | - Alysia D Cox
- Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry, Montana Technological University, Butte, MT, USA
| | - Brian St Clair
- Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry, Montana Technological University, Butte, MT, USA
| | - Zheng-Shuang Hua
- Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, PR China
| | - Wen-Jun Li
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
- College of Fisheries, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, PR China
| | | | - Matthew B Stott
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
| | - Peter K Weber
- Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
| | - Jennifer Pett-Ridge
- Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
- Life & Environmental Sciences Department, University of Merced, Merced, CA, USA
| | - Anne E Dekas
- Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Brian P Hedlund
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA
| | - Jeremy A Dodsworth
- Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA.
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12
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Megevand V, Carrizo D, Lezcano MÁ, Moreno-Paz M, Cabrol NA, Parro V, Sánchez-García L. Lipid Profiles From Fresh Biofilms Along a Temperature Gradient on a Hydrothermal Stream at El Tatio (Chilean Andes), as a Proxy for the Interpretation of Past and Present Biomarkers Beyond Earth. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:811904. [PMID: 35832812 PMCID: PMC9271869 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.811904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Accepted: 05/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Hydrothermal systems and their deposits are primary targets in the search for fossil evidence of life beyond Earth. However, to learn how to decode fossil biomarker records in ancient hydrothermal deposits, we must first be able to interpret unambiguously modern biosignatures, their distribution patterns, and their association with physicochemical factors. Here, we investigated the molecular and isotopic profile of microbial biomarkers along a thermal gradient (from 29 to 72°C) in a hot spring (labeled Cacao) from El Tatio, a geyser field in the Chilean Andes with abundant opaline silica deposits resembling the nodular and digitate structures discovered on Mars. As a molecular forensic approach, we focused on the analysis of lipid compounds bearing recognized resistance to degradation and the potential to reconstruct the paleobiology of an environment on a broader temporal scale than other, more labile, biomolecules. By exploiting the lipid biomarkers’ potential to diagnose biological sources and carbon fixation pathways, we reconstructed the microbial community structure and its ecology along the Cacao hydrothermal transect. The taxonomic adscription of the lipid biomarkers was qualitatively corroborated with DNA sequencing analysis. The forensic capacity of the lipid biomarkers to identify biosources in fresh biofilms was validated down to the genus level for Roseiflexus, Chloroflexus, and Fischerella. We identified lipid biomarkers and DNA of several new cyanobacterial species in El Tatio and reported the first detection of Fischerella biomarkers at a temperature as high as 72°C. This, together with ecological peculiarities and the proportion of clades being characterized as unclassified, illustrates the ecological singularity of El Tatio and strengthens its astrobiological relevance. The Cacao hydrothermal ecosystem was defined by a succession of microbial communities and metabolic traits associated with a high- (72°C) to low-(29°C) temperature gradient that resembled the inferred metabolic sequence events from the 16S rRNA gene universal phylogenetic tree from thermophilic to anoxygenic photosynthetic species and oxygenic phototrophs. The locally calibrated DNA-validated lipidic profile in the Cacao biofilms provided a modern (molecular and isotopic) end member to facilitate the recognition of past biosources and metabolisms from altered biomarkers records in ancient silica deposits at El Tatio analogous to Martian opaline silica structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentine Megevand
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), INTA-CSIC, Madrid, Spain
- Department of Earth Sciences, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon, Lyon, France
| | | | | | | | - Nathalie A. Cabrol
- Carl Sagan Center for Research, The SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, United States
| | - Víctor Parro
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), INTA-CSIC, Madrid, Spain
| | - Laura Sánchez-García
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), INTA-CSIC, Madrid, Spain
- *Correspondence: Laura Sánchez-García,
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13
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Steller LH, Van Kranendonk MJ, Wang A. Dehydration Enhances Prebiotic Lipid Remodeling and Vesicle Formation in Acidic Environments. ACS CENTRAL SCIENCE 2022; 8:132-139. [PMID: 35106379 PMCID: PMC8796310 DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.1c01365] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The encapsulation of genetic polymers inside lipid bilayer compartments (vesicles) is a vital step in the emergence of cell-based life. However, even though acidic conditions promote many reactions required for generating prebiotic building blocks, prebiotically relevant lipids tend to form denser aggregates at acidic pHs rather than prebiotically useful vesicles that exhibit sufficient solute encapsulation. Here, we describe how dehydration/rehydration (DR) events, a prebiotically relevant physicochemical process known to promote polymerization reactions, can remodel dense lipid aggregates into thin-walled vesicles capable of RNA encapsulation even at acidic pHs. Furthermore, DR events appear to favor the encapsulation of RNA within thin-walled vesicles over more lipid-rich vesicles, thus conferring such vesicles a selective advantage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luke H. Steller
- School
of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Bedegal
Country, New South Wales 2052, Australia
- Australian
Centre for Astrobiology, UNSW Sydney, Bedegal Country, New South
Wales 2052, Australia
| | - Martin J. Van Kranendonk
- School
of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Bedegal
Country, New South Wales 2052, Australia
- Australian
Centre for Astrobiology, UNSW Sydney, Bedegal Country, New South
Wales 2052, Australia
| | - Anna Wang
- School
of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney, Bedegal Country, New South
Wales 2052, Australia
- Australian
Centre for Astrobiology, UNSW Sydney, Bedegal Country, New South
Wales 2052, Australia
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14
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Schopf JW. Precambrian Paleobiology: Precedents, Progress, and Prospects. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.707072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In 1859, C. R. Darwin highlighted the “inexplicable” absence of evidence of life prior to the beginning of the Cambrian. Given this lack of evidence and the natural rather than theological unfolding of life’s development Darwin espoused, over the following 50 years his newly minted theory was disputed. At the turn of the 19th century, beginning with the discoveries of C. D. Walcott, glimmerings of the previously “unknown and unknowable” early fossil record came to light – but Walcott’s Precambrian finds were also discounted. It was not until the breakthrough advances of the 1950’s and the identification of modern stromatolites (1956), Precambrian phytoplankton in shales (1950’s), stromatolitic microbes in cherts (1953), and terminal-Precambrian soft-bodied animal fossils (1950’s) that the field was placed on firm footing. Over the following half-century, the development and application of new analytical techniques coupled with the groundbreaking contributions of the Precambrian Paleobiology Research Group spurred the field to its international and distinctly interdisciplinary status. Significant progress has been made worldwide. Among these advances, the known fossil record has been extended sevenfold (from ∼0.5 to ∼3.5 Ga); the fossil record has been shown consistent with rRNA phylogenies (adding credence to both); and the timing and evolutionary significance of an increase of environmental oxygen (∼2.3 Ga), of eukaryotic organisms (∼2.0 Ga), and of evolution-speeding and biota-diversifying eukaryotic sexual reproduction (∼1.2 Ga) have been identified. Nevertheless, much remains to be learned. Such major unsolved problems include the absence of definitive evidence of the widely assumed life-generating “primordial soup”; the timing of the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis; the veracity of postulated changes in global photic-zone temperature from 3.5 Ga to the present; the bases of the advent of eukaryotic sexuality-requiring gametogenesis and syngamy; and the timing of origin and affinities of the small soft-bodied precursors of the Ediacaran Fauna.
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15
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Gaylor MO, Miro P, Vlaisavljevich B, Kondage AAS, Barge LM, Omran A, Videau P, Swenson VA, Leinen LJ, Fitch NW, Cole KL, Stone C, Drummond SM, Rageth K, Dewitt LR, González Henao S, Karanauskus V. Plausible Emergence and Self Assembly of a Primitive Phospholipid from Reduced Phosphorus on the Primordial Earth. ORIGINS LIFE EVOL B 2021; 51:185-213. [PMID: 34279769 DOI: 10.1007/s11084-021-09613-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2021] [Accepted: 06/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
How life arose on the primitive Earth is one of the biggest questions in science. Biomolecular emergence scenarios have proliferated in the literature but accounting for the ubiquity of oxidized (+ 5) phosphate (PO43-) in extant biochemistries has been challenging due to the dearth of phosphate and molecular oxygen on the primordial Earth. A compelling body of work suggests that exogenous schreibersite ((Fe,Ni)3P) was delivered to Earth via meteorite impacts during the Heavy Bombardment (ca. 4.1-3.8 Gya) and there converted to reduced P oxyanions (e.g., phosphite (HPO32-) and hypophosphite (H2PO2-)) and phosphonates. Inspired by this idea, we review the relevant literature to deduce a plausible reduced phospholipid analog of modern phosphatidylcholines that could have emerged in a primordial hydrothermal setting. A shallow alkaline lacustrine basin underlain by active hydrothermal fissures and meteoritic schreibersite-, clay-, and metal-enriched sediments is envisioned. The water column is laden with known and putative primordial hydrothermal reagents. Small system dimensions and thermal- and UV-driven evaporation further concentrate chemical precursors. We hypothesize that a reduced phospholipid arises from Fischer-Tropsch-type (FTT) production of a C8 alkanoic acid, which condenses with an organophosphinate (derived from schreibersite corrosion to hypophosphite with subsequent methylation/oxidation), to yield a reduced protophospholipid. This then condenses with an α-amino nitrile (derived from Strecker-type reactions) to form the polar head. Preliminary modeling results indicate that reduced phospholipids do not aggregate rapidly; however, single layer micelles are stable up to aggregates with approximately 100 molecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael O Gaylor
- Department of Chemistry, Dakota State University, Madison, SD, 57042, USA.
| | - Pere Miro
- Department of Chemistry, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, 57069, USA
| | - Bess Vlaisavljevich
- Department of Chemistry, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, 57069, USA
| | | | - Laura M Barge
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA
| | - Arthur Omran
- School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33620, USA.,Department of Chemistry, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA
| | - Patrick Videau
- Department of Biology, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR, 97520, USA.,Bayer Crop Science, Chesterfield, MO, 63017, USA
| | - Vaille A Swenson
- Department of Chemistry, Dakota State University, Madison, SD, 57042, USA.,Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Lucas J Leinen
- Department of Chemistry, Dakota State University, Madison, SD, 57042, USA
| | - Nathaniel W Fitch
- Department of Chemistry, Dakota State University, Madison, SD, 57042, USA
| | - Krista L Cole
- Department of Chemistry, Dakota State University, Madison, SD, 57042, USA
| | - Chris Stone
- Department of Biology, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR, 97520, USA
| | - Samuel M Drummond
- Department of Chemistry, Dakota State University, Madison, SD, 57042, USA
| | - Kayli Rageth
- Department of Chemistry, Dakota State University, Madison, SD, 57042, USA
| | - Lillian R Dewitt
- Department of Chemistry, Dakota State University, Madison, SD, 57042, USA
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16
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Russell MJ. The "Water Problem"( sic), the Illusory Pond and Life's Submarine Emergence-A Review. Life (Basel) 2021; 11:429. [PMID: 34068713 PMCID: PMC8151828 DOI: 10.3390/life11050429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2021] [Revised: 04/30/2021] [Accepted: 05/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The assumption that there was a "water problem" at the emergence of life-that the Hadean Ocean was simply too wet and salty for life to have emerged in it-is here subjected to geological and experimental reality checks. The "warm little pond" that would take the place of the submarine alkaline vent theory (AVT), as recently extolled in the journal Nature, flies in the face of decades of geological, microbiological and evolutionary research and reasoning. To the present author, the evidence refuting the warm little pond scheme is overwhelming given the facts that (i) the early Earth was a water world, (ii) its all-enveloping ocean was never less than 4 km deep, (iii) there were no figurative "Icelands" or "Hawaiis", nor even an "Ontong Java" then because (iv) the solidifying magma ocean beneath was still too mushy to support such salient loadings on the oceanic crust. In place of the supposed warm little pond, we offer a well-protected mineral mound precipitated at a submarine alkaline vent as life's womb: in place of lipid membranes, we suggest peptides; we replace poisonous cyanide with ammonium and hydrazine; instead of deleterious radiation we have the appropriate life-giving redox and pH disequilibria; and in place of messy chemistry we offer the potential for life's emergence from the simplest of geochemically available molecules and ions focused at a submarine alkaline vent in the Hadean-specifically within the nano-confined flexible and redox active interlayer walls of the mixed-valent double layer oxyhydroxide mineral, fougerite/green rust comprising much of that mound.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael J Russell
- Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Torino, via P. Giuria 7, 10125 Turin, Italy
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17
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Deamer D. Where Did Life Begin? Testing Ideas in Prebiotic Analogue Conditions. Life (Basel) 2021; 11:life11020134. [PMID: 33578711 PMCID: PMC7916457 DOI: 10.3390/life11020134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2020] [Revised: 01/27/2021] [Accepted: 02/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Publications related to the origin of life are mostly products of laboratory research and have the tacit assumption that the same reactions would have been possible on the early Earth some 4 billion years ago. Can this assumption be tested? We cannot go back in time, but we are able to venture out of the laboratory and perform experiments in natural conditions that are presumably analogous to the prebiotic environment. This brief review describes initial attempts to undertake such studies and some of the lessons we have learned.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Deamer
- Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA
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