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Life functions through the specialized chemistry of carbon and water, and builds largely upon four key families of chemicals: lipids for cell membranes, carbohydrates such as sugars, amino acids for protein metabolism, and nucleic acid DNA and RNA for the mechanisms of heredity. Any successful theory of abiogenesis must explain the origins and ...
Fox has likened the amino acid globules to cells, and proposed it bridged the macromolecule to cell transition. However, his hypothesis was later dismissed as proteinoids are not proteins, they feature mostly non-peptide bonds and amino acid cross-linkages not present in living organisms. Furthermore, they have no compartmentalization and there ...
Cell-free production of proteins is performed in vitro using purified RNA polymerase, ribosomes, tRNA and ribonucleotides. These reagents may be produced by extraction from cells or from a cell-based expression system. Due to the low expression levels and high cost of cell-free systems, cell-based systems are more widely used. [29]
A protocell is a pre-cell in abiogenesis, and was a contained system consisting of simple biologically relevant molecules like ribozymes, and encapsulated in a simple membrane structure – isolating the entity from the environment and other individuals – thought to consist of simple fatty acids, mineral structures, or rock-pore structures.
A scenario is a set of related concepts pertinent to the origin of life (abiogenesis), such as the iron-sulfur world. Many alternative abiogenesis scenarios have been proposed by scientists in a variety of fields from the 1950s onwards in an attempt to explain how the complex mechanisms of life could have come into existence. These include ...
One of the most critical components of cells, the ribosome, is composed primarily of RNA. Although alternative chemical paths to life have been proposed, [8] and RNA-based life may not have been the first life to exist, [3] [9] the RNA world hypothesis seems to be the most favored abiogenesis paradigm. However, even proponents agree that there ...
The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the hypothesized common ancestral cell from which the three domains of life, the Bacteria, the Archaea, and the Eukarya originated. The cell had a lipid bilayer; it possessed the genetic code and ribosomes which translated from DNA or RNA to proteins.
The eukaryotic cell seems to have evolved from a symbiotic community of prokaryotic cells. DNA-bearing organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts are remnants of ancient symbiotic oxygen-breathing bacteria and cyanobacteria , respectively, where at least part of the rest of the cell may have been derived from an ancestral archaean prokaryote ...