Abstract
We examine the prebiotic applicability of our recent analysis of the fission of an atmospheric aerosol particle coated with an organic film. The fission is made possible by the free energy change upon compression of the exterior monolayer film on the parent particle, which overcomes the increase in surface area associated with the production of two spherical daughter particles. Asymmetric division into a larger and a smaller particle becomes possible following surfactant film collapse. The size of the airborne parent particle is determined by the balance between aerodynamics and gravity, while the ratio of the radii of the daughters is determined by the compression characteristics of the amphiphilic molecules comprising the parent film. For an Earth atmosphere of one bar surface pressure, the larger and smaller daughters have the sizes of a single-celled bacterium and of a virus respectively. Chemical differentiation between the daughters is possible.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Adam, G. and Delbrück, M.: 1968, in A. Rich and N. Davidson (eds), Structural Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Freeman, pp. 198-215.
Bertram, A. K., Ivanov, A. V., Hunter, M., Molina, L. T. and Molina, M. J.: 2001, The Reaction Probability of OH on Organic Surfaces of Tropospheric Interest, J. Phys. Chem. A 105, 9415–9421.
Blanchard, D. C.: 1964, Sea-to-air Transport of Surface Active Material, Science 146, 396–397.
Cody, G. D., Boctor, N. Z., Filley, T. R., Hazen, R. M., Scott, J. H., Sharma, A. and Yoder Jr., H. S.: 2000, Primordial Carbonylated Iron-sulfur Compounds and the Synthesis of Pyruvate, Science 289, 1337–1340.
Cronin, J. R.: 1998, Clues from the Origin of the Solar System: Meteorites, in A. Brack (ed.), The Molecular Origins of Life, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 6, pp. 119-146.
Deamer, D. W.: 1997, The First Living Systems: A Bioenergetic Perspective, Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Revs. 61, 239–261.
Dietrich, C., Volovyk, Z. N., Levi, M., Thompson, N. L. and Jacobson, K.: 2001, Partitioning of Thy-1, GM1, and Cross-linked Phospholipid Analogs into Lipid Rafts Reconstituted in Supported Model Membrane Layers, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 98, 10642–10647.
Dobson, C. M., Ellison, G. B., Tuck, A. F. and Vaida, V.: 2000, Atmospheric Aerosols as Prebiotic Chemical Reactors, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 97, 11864–11868.
Donaldson, D. J., Tuck, A. F. and Vaida, V.: 2001, Spontaneous Fission of Atmospheric Aerosol Particles, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 3, 5270–5273.
Dyson, F. J.: 1985, Origins of Life, 1st ed., Cambridge University Press.
Dyson, F. J.: 1999, Origins of Life, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press.
Ellison, G. B., Tuck, A. F. and Vaida, V.: 1999, Atmospheric Processing of Organic Aerosols, J. Geophys. Res. 104, 11633–11642.
Gill, P. S., Graedel, T. E. and Weschler, C. G.: 1983, Organic Films on Atmospheric Aerosol Particles, Fog Droplets, Raindrops and Snowflakes, Rev. Geophys. 21, 903–920.
Haselmann, C. and Laustriat, G.: 1973, Photochimie des Acides Amines Aromatiques en Solution-I. DL-phenylalanine, DL-tyrosine et L-dopa, Photochem. Photobiol. 17, 275–294.
Huber, C. and Wächtershäuser, G.: 1998, Peptides by Activation of Amino Acids with CO on (Ni, Fe)S Surfaces: Implications for the Origin of Life, Science 281, 670–672.
Lerman, L.: 1996, The Bubble-aerosol-droplet Cycle: A Prebiotic Geochemical Reactor, Orig. Life Evol. Biosph. 26, 369–370.
Luisi, P. L., Giomini, M., Pileni, M. P. and Robinson, B. H.: 1988, Reverse Micelles as Hosts for Proteins and Small Molecules, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 947, 209–246.
Luisi, P. L.: 1996, Self-reproduction of Micelles and Vesicles: Models for the Mechanisms of Life from the Perspective of Compartmented Chemistry, in I. Prigogine and S. A. Rice (eds), Advances in Chemical Physics, XCII, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 425-438.
Mason, B. J.: 1954, Bursting of Air Bubbles at the Surface of Sea Water, Nature 174, 470–471.
Middlebrook, A. M., Murphy, D.M. and Thomson, D. S.: 1998, Observations of Organic Material in Individual Marine Particles at Cape Grim during the First Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-1), J. Geophys. Res. 103, 16475–16483.
Morowitz, H. J.: 1992, Beginnings of Cellular Life, Yale University Press.
Murphy, D. M., Thomson, D. S. and Mahoney, M. J.: 1998, In Situ Measurements of Organics, Meteoritic Material, Mercury and Other Elements in Aerosols at 5 to 19 Kilometers, Science 282, 1664–1669.
Norris, V. and Raine, D. J.: 1998, A Fission-fusion Origin for Life, Orig. Life Evol. Biosph. 28, 523–537.
Pruppacher, H. R. and Klett, J. D.: 1998, Microphysics of Clouds and Precipitation, 2nd ed., Reidel, pp. 216-286.
Petrov, J. G., Pfohl, T. and Möhwald, H.: 1999, Ellipsometric Chain Length Dependence of Fatty Acid Langmuir Monolayers. A Heads-and-tails Model, J. Phys. Chem. B 103, 3417–3424.
Razumovsky, L. and Damodaran, S.: 1999, Surface Activity-compressibility Relationship of Proteins at the Air-water Interface, Langmuir 15, 1392–1399.
Schopf, J. W.: 1998, Tracing the Roots of the Universal Tree of Life, in A. Brack (ed.), TheMolecular Origins of Life, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 16, pp. 336-362.
Shah, D. O.: 1970, The Origin of Membranes and Related Surface Phenomena, in C. Ponnamperuma (ed.), Exobiology, North Holland, Chapter 7, pp. 336-362.
Shock, E. L., McCollom, T. and Schulte, M. D.: 1995, Geochemical Constraints on Chemolithoautotrophic Reactions in Hydrothermal Systems, Orig. Life Evol. Biosph. 25, 141–159.
Simoneit, B. R. T.: 1995, Evidence for Organic Synthesis in High Temperature Aqueous Media-Facts and Prognosis, Orig. Life Evol. Biosph. 25, 119–140.
Ställberg-Stenhagen, S. and Stenhagen, E.: 1945, Phase Transitions in Condensed Monolayers of Normal Chain Carboxylic Acids, Nature 156, 239.
Szostak, J. W., Bartel, D. P. and Luisi, P. L.: 2001, Synthesizing Life, Nature 409, 387–390.
Tervahattu, H., Hartonen, K., Kerminen, V.-M., Vaida, V., Tuck, A. F., Kupiainen, K., Aarnio, P. and Koskentalo, T.: 2002a, New Evidence of an Organic Layer on Marine Aerosols, J. Geophys. Res., (in press).
Tervahattu, H., Juhanoja, J. and Kupiainen, K.: 2002b, TOF-SIMS Analyses of an Organic Coating on Marine Aerosols, J. Geophys. Res., (in press).
Tuck, A. F.: 2002, The Role of Atmospheric Aerosols in the Origin of Life, Surv. Geophys., (in press).
Williams, R. J. P. and FraÚsto da Silva, J. J. R.: 1996, The Natural Selection of the Chemical Elements, Oxford University Press.
Woese, C. R.: 1979, A Proposal Concerning the Origin of Life on the Planet Earth, J. Mol. Evol. 13, 95–101.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Donaldson, D.J., Tuck, A.F. & Vaida, V. The Asymmetry of Organic Aerosol Fission and Prebiotic Chemistry. Orig Life Evol Biosph 32, 237–245 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016575224538
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016575224538