The Nature of the Last Universal Common Ancestor and its Impact on the Early Earth System
origin of life
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Scripps Research Scientists Reveal How The First Cells Could Have Formed On Earth
Roughly 4 billion years ago, Earth was developing conditions suitable for life. Origin-of-life scientists often wonder if the type of chemistry found on the early Earth was similar to what […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Press Release
Do We Have Cosmic Dust To Thank For Life On Earth?
Before life existed on Earth, there had to be chemistry to form organic molecules from the chemical elements nitrogen, sulphur, carbon and phosphorus.
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Life, Its Definition, Origin, Evolution, and Four-dimensional Hierarchical Structure, Biosystems
The main unique features of biological systems are reviewed, and four necessary and sufficient attributes of life are formulated, based on the ideas of Ervin Bauer.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Astronomical and Cosmochemical Aspects of the Life Origin Problem
The fundamental properties of a known form of life are briefly considered, including the fundamental ideas about the chemical evolution of matter and the properties of living matter, which are […]
![Coupled evolutionary advances favoring emergence and fostering the specialization of genetic coding. (a). Interdependences involved in embedding specific recognition into the sequence space of folded proteins [26]. (b). Experimentally measurable metrics corresponding to (a). Although experimental models exist for each process, confirming details requires further work. -- LIFE](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Base-Pairing.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Base Pairing Promoted the Self-Organization of Genetic Coding, Catalysis, and Free-Energy Transduction
How Nature discovered genetic coding is a largely ignored question, yet the answer is key to explaining the transition from biochemical building blocks to life. Other, related puzzles also fall […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
The Key Steps in the Origin of Life to the Formation of the Eukaryotic Cell
The path from life’s origin to the emergence of the eukaryotic cell was long and complex, and as such it is rarely treated in one publication.
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Genome-scale Metabolic Modelling Of Extremophiles And Its Applications In Astrobiological Environments
Metabolic modelling approaches have become the powerful tools in modern biology. These mathematical models are widely used to predict metabolic phenotypes of the organisms or communities of interest, and to […]
![The proto-ribosome: (a) The symmetrical region within the 23S rRNA of E. coli ribosome (PDB code 2AW4). The A- and P-subregions, in blue and green, respectively, throughout. Helices H68-H71 were removed to reveal the PTC area. (b) 2D scheme of the symmetrical region (on colored background), drawn in a manner exhibiting the twofold symmetry, with the central loop of domain V (C-loop) at its center. The sequence assigned to the remnant of the DPR (boundary marked) is composed of two L-shaped molecules, the A- and P-DPR monomers. Nucleotides conserved by more than 97% in each of the three life domains, as detected in the CRW site [77], are presented by capital letters and the remaining nucleotides by circles. (c) Overlap of the DPR fold as found in the high-resolution structures of archaea (PDB code 1VQ6), bacteria (PDB code 2WDL), and eukarya (PDB code 3U5D) ribosomes, portraying its extreme tertiary conservation in the three life domains. The pocket is projected approximately along the symmetry axis, with the reactants (PDB code 2WDL) positioned at the bottom of the cavity. (d) Overlap of the A- and P-DPR monomers from E. coli (PDB code 2AW4), obtained by rotating one monomer by 179.6° around the symmetry axis. The projection direction is perpendicular to the one shown in (c). tRNA molecule (PDB code 4TRA, in gray) is overlaid with its anticodon arm overlapping H89 and H93 helices from the P- and A-monomers, respectively. Magnified nucleotides from the superimposed stems of H89 and its symmetry-related H93 depict the conformational match. Nucleotide A2602, which is functionally active, bulges into the PTC and breaks the overall symmetry. (e) Model of a minimal coded proto-ribosome assembled from four L-shaped entities of about 60–70 nucleotides each (derived from PDB code 1VY4), i.e., the A-, P-DPR monomers, the proto-SSU (purple), and the bridging element (dark red), complexed with mRNA (orange) and tRNA (cyan). -- LIFE](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Three-Biopolymers.png?resize=1200%2C716&ssl=1)
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Three Biopolymers And Origin Of Life Scenarios
To track down the possible roots of life, various models for the initial living system composed of different combinations of the three extant biopolymers, RNA, DNA, and proteins, are presented.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Press Release
The Cosmic Fertiliser That Fuelled The Origins Of Life
The origin of life is an event so rare that, to the best of our knowledge, it has only happened once: here on Earth. The questions of how life developed […]