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The Theory of Chemical Symbiosis: A Margulian View for the Emergence of Biological Systems (Origin of Life)

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Abstract

The theory of chemical symbiosis (TCS) suggests that biological systems started with the collaboration of two polymeric molecules existing in early Earth: nucleic acids and peptides. Chemical symbiosis emerged when RNA-like nucleic acid polymers happened to fold into 3D structures capable to bind amino acids together, forming a proto peptidyl-transferase center. This folding catalyzed the formation of quasi-random small peptides, some of them capable to bind this ribozyme structure back and starting to form an initial layer that would produce the larger subunit of the ribosome by accretion. TCS suggests that there is no chicken-and-egg problem into the emergence of biological systems as RNAs and peptides were of equal importance to the origin of life. Life has initially emerged when these two macromolecules started to interact in molecular symbiosis. Further, we suggest that life evolved into progenotes and cells due to the emergence of new layers of symbiosis. Mutualism is the strongest force in biology, capable to create novelties by emergent principles; on which the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. TCS aims to apply the Margulian view of biology into the origins of life field.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank FAPERJ (CNE E-26/202.780/2018) and CNPq (PDE 205072/2018-6) for funding FP. MVJ was financially supported by Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico (DGAPA), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, PAPIIT-IN201019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Biologia Teórica e de Sistemas, Instituto de Bioquímica Médica Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

    Francisco Prosdocimi

  2. Theoretical Biology Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Mexico City, CDMX, Mexico

    Francisco Prosdocimi & Marco V. José

  3. Laboratório de Genética Evolutiva Paulo Leminsk, Departamento de Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brasil

    Sávio Torres de Farias

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  1. Francisco Prosdocimi
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  2. Marco V. José
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  3. Sávio Torres de Farias
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Correspondence to Francisco Prosdocimi or Sávio Torres de Farias.

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Prosdocimi, F., José, M.V. & de Farias, S.T. The Theory of Chemical Symbiosis: A Margulian View for the Emergence of Biological Systems (Origin of Life). Acta Biotheor 69, 67–78 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-020-09388-7

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