Protobionts | Mysite

Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality

Session # 118 Monday 16 May 2022: 1-2PM EDT

"Life on Earth has evolved through a series of events, known as evolutionary transitions in individuality, in which previously independent units evolve to become specialized parts of new, ‘higher-level’ units. Understanding the forces that drove these transitions remains challenging, however, because most occurred in the deep past. Experimental evolution has emerged as a promising approach to investigate these critical events in life’s history because it enables researchers to directly observe the evolutionary process in real-time, providing a rare glimpse at the plausible paths life may have taken. The approach also opens up the possibility of isolating key environmental variables, for controlling input parameters such as population size and structure, mutation rate and selection pressure, and for replicating experiments for the purpose of statistical inference."

Origins and Evolution of Protobiota in Earth's Protogeobiosphere

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Black, R.A., M.C. Blosser 2016. A self-assembled aggregate composed of a fatty acid membrane and the building blocks of biological polymers provides a first step in the emergence of protocells. Life 6:33.

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Gisriel, C. et al. 2022. High-resolution cryo-electron microscopy structure of photosystem II from the mesophilic cyanobacterium, Synechocystis sp. PCC6803. PNAS 119(1):e211665118.

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Jackson, J.B. 2017. The ‘‘origin-of-life reactor’’ and reduction of CO2 by H2 in inorganic precipitates. J.Mol.Evol. 85: 1-7.

Jia, T.Z., K. Chandru, Y. Hongo, R. Afrin, T. Usui, K. Myojo, H.J. Cleaves 2019. Membraneless polyester microdroplets as primordial compartments at the origins of life. PNAS 116(32): 15830-15835.

Joyce, G.F., J.W. Szostak 2018. Protocells and RNA self-replication. Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. 10(9):a034801.

Lai, Y., Z. Liu, I.A. Chen 2021. Encapsulation of ribozymes inside model protocells leads to faster evolutionary adaptation. PNAS 118(21):e2025054118.

Lancet, D., R. Zidovetzki, O. Markovitch 2018. Systems protobiology: origin of life in lipid catalytic networks. J . R. Soc. Interface 15:20180159.

Li, L., et al. 2021. Microscopic origins of the crystallographically preferred growth in evaporation-induced colloidal crystals.
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Mamajanov, I. G.D. Cody 2017. Protoenzymes: the case of hyperbranched polyesters. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 375: 20160357.

Mamajanov I., M.P. Callahan, J.P. Dworkin, G.D. Cody 2016. Prebiotic alternatives to proteins: structure and function of hyperbranched polyesters. Orig. Life Evol. Biosphere 45:123–137.

Mayer, C. U. Schreiber, M.J. Dávila, O.J. Schmitz, A. Bronja, M. Meyer, J. Klein, S.W. Meckelmann 2018. Molecular evolution in a peptide-vesicle system. Life 8(2):16.

Pearce, B.K.D., R.E. Pudritz, D.A. Semenov, T.K. Hennig 2017. Origin of the RNA world: the fate of nucleobases in warm little ponds. PNAS 114:11327-11332.

Poudyal, R.R., R.M. Guth-Metzler, A.J. Veenis, E.A. Frankel, C.D. Keating, P.C. Bevilacqua 2019. Template-directed RNA polymerization and enhanced ribozyme catalysis inside membraneless compartments formed by coacervates. Nat. Comm. 10:490.

Rimmer, P.B. & O. Shorttle 2019. Origin of life’s building blocks in carbon and nitrogen rich surface hydrothermal vents. Life (draft in review 24 Jan 2019)

Rivilla, V.M. et al. 2021. Discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group. PNAS 118(22):e2101314118.

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Song, Y., T.CT. Michaels, Q. Ma, Z. Liu, H. Yuan, S. Takayama, T.P.J. Knowles, H.C. Shum 2018. Budding-like division of all-aqueous emulsion droplets modulated by networks of protein nanofibrils. Nat. Comm. 9:2110.

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Emergence of Life and Earth's Biosphere

Review and analysis of scientific research and theory bearing on knowledge of Earth’s protogeobiosphere, origins and evolution of protobiont complexity, and emergence of life in the cosmos.