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[5] [6] [11] Nonetheless, the transition of non-life to life has never been observed experimentally, nor has there been a satisfactory chemical explanation. [12] The preconditions to the development of a living cell like the LUCA are clear enough, though disputed in their details: a habitable world is formed with a supply of minerals and liquid ...
Spontaneous generation, the first naturalistic theory of abiogenesis, goes back to Aristotle and ancient Greek philosophy, and continued to have support in Western scholarship until the 19th century. [15] The theory held that "lower" animals are generated by decaying organic substances.
Partitioning may have begun from cell-like spheroids formed by proteinoids, which are observed by heating amino acids with phosphoric acid as a catalyst. They bear much of the basic features provided by cell membranes. Proteinoid-based protocells enclosing RNA molecules could have been the first cellular life forms on Earth. [5]
Where the Dutch microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek described "small spheroid globules", they observed yeast cells undergo cell division. Fermentation would not occur when sterile air or pure oxygen was introduced if yeast were not present. This suggested that airborne microorganisms, not spontaneous generation, was responsible. [44]
It has been proposed that life began in hydrothermal vents in the deep sea, but a 2012 study suggests that hot springs have the ideal characteristics for the origin of life. [44] The conclusion is based mainly on the chemistry of modern cells, where the cytoplasm is rich in potassium, zinc, manganese, and phosphate ions, not widespread in ...
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.
A proto-metabolism is a series of linked chemical reactions in a prebiotic environment that preceded and eventually turned into modern metabolism.Combining ongoing research in astrobiology and prebiotic chemistry, work in this area focuses on reconstructing the connections between potential metabolic processes that may have occurred in early Earth conditions. [1]
It has been suggested that many of the existing plant and most animal species have undergone an event of polyploidization in their evolutionary history. [ 77 ] [ 78 ] Reproduction of successful polyploid species is sometimes asexual, by parthenogenesis or apomixis , as for unknown reasons many asexual organisms are polyploid.