[PNAS] The magnitude and shape of phenotypic variation depends on properties of the genotype-to-phenotype (GP) map, which itself can evolve over time. The evolution of GP maps is particularly interesting […]
Origin & Evolution of Life
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Selection For Propagule Formation In Prebiotic Chemical Ecosystems
[biorxiv.org] Biological individuals on Earth today are cellular, but the simplest cells are too complex to have arisen spontaneously.
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
The Abiotic Background: Challenges and Opportunities in the Search for Evidence of Life Beyond Earth
[Astrobiology (Journal) via PubMed]. The “Exploring the Abiotic Background for Life Detection“ workshop was convened between March 31, 2025, and April 3, 2025, at the Carnegie Institution for Science in […]
Posted inBiophysics
Balance Between Order and Disorder: Quantum-Epigenetic Pathways for the Emergence and Continuous Evolution of Life
[Acta Biotheoretica] The scientific restlessness surrounding the question of what life is (expressed in the provocations of Feynman and Schrödinger) guides this review article by integrating physics, chemistry, and biology […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
Deep Shifts In Evolutionary Rate Trajectories Of Ancient Bacterial Genes
[biorxiv.org] Reconstruction of ancestral gene repertoires from extant genomes captures only the genes that survived; those lost from the record are invisible. Among the genes that did persist, selective pressures […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
A Genomic Catalog Of Earth’s Bacterial And Archaeal Symbionts
[Nature Biotechnology] Microbial symbiosis drives the functional and phylogenomic diversification of life on Earth yet remains underexplored because of culturing challenges.
Posted inBiophysics
How A Deep-sea Protein Adapts To An Extreme Environment
[Kyushu University] Life in the deep sea is under immense pressure—literally. Such extreme conditions can disrupt the delicate structures of proteins essential to life. Yet somehow, the proteins in deep-sea […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
The History Of Enzyme Evolution Embedded In Metabolism
[PNAS]. Whereas phylogenetic reconstructions are a primary record of protein evolution, it is unknown whether the deep history of enzymes is encoded at higher levels of biological organization.
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Structure Of An RNA polymerase Ribozyme Replication Complex
[biorxiv.org] Life began with the emergence of a molecule that could replicate its own genetic material, a task plausibly mediated by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase ribozyme.
![Left: Average ocean fraction, calculated assuming a seawater freezing point of −1.8°𝐶 for Cases 1 and 3 and 0°𝐶 for Case 2. White shows the ice, and blue ocean. Middle: The mean near-surface air temperatures. Shown within the black contours are the regions where these vary between above and below freezing over the course of a single Earth year. Right: The mean surface temperatures. Also shown within the black contours are the regions where these vary between above and below freezing over the course of a single Earth year: these regions are narrower than the air ‘perifreezing zone’.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Sea-Ice.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inWater/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Sea Ice As An Origin Of Life Location For Hycean And Ocean Worlds
[astro-ph.EP] Water worlds with potential deep oceans are at the forefront of currently observable exoplanetary habitability.