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Energetics of the First Life

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Origins of Life: The Primal Self-Organization

Abstract

Life can exist only when supported by energy flow(s). Here, the tentative mechanisms of coupling between the natural energy fluxes and the first life forms are discussed. It is argued that the evolutionarily relevant, continuous fluxes of reducing equivalents, which were needed for the syntheses of the first biomolecules, may have been provided by the inorganic photosynthesis and by the redox reactions within hot, iron-containing rocks. The only primordial environments where these fluxes could meet were the continental geothermal systems. The ejections from the hot, continental springs could contain, on the one hand, hydrogen and carbonaceous compounds and, on other hand, transition metals as Zn and Mn, which precipitated around the springs as photosynthetically active ZnS and MnS particles capable of reducing carbon dioxide to diverse organic compounds. At high pressure of the primordial CO2 atmosphere, both the inorganic photosynthesis and the abiotic reduction of carbon dioxide within hot rocks should have proceeded with high yield. Among a plethora of abiotically produced carbonaceous molecules, the natural nucleotides could accumulate as the most photostable structures; their polymerization and folding into double-stranded segments should have been favored by the further increase in the photostability. It is hypothesized that after some aggregates of photo-selected RNA-like polymers could attain the ability for self-replication, the consortia of such replicating entities may have dwelled in honeycomb-like ZnS-enriched mineral compartments which provided shelter and nourishment. The energetics of the first life forms could be driven by their ability to cleave the abiogenically formed organic molecules and by reactions of the phosphate group transfer. The next stage of evolution may be envisaged as a selection for increasingly tighter envelopes of the first organisms; this selection may have eventually yielded ion-tight lipid membranes able to support the sodium-dependent membrane bioenergetics. Lastly, the proton-tight, elaborate membranes independently emerged in Bacteria and Archaea, and enabled the transition to the modern-type proton-dependent bioenergetics.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Incidentally, the interplay between supporting and erasing energy fluxes, which was disclosed during the aforementioned simulations (Mulkidjanian et al. 2003; Mulkidjanian 2009), should also persist on a higher, organismic level. Indeed, let us take a hare as an example. Via consumed plants, the hare is supported by solar energy. How can the “erasing” flux of solar energy affect the hare? The hare, of course, has a chance to dye of sunstroke. The probability of such indiscriminative elimination is, however, negligibly small. Much larger is the probability of encoutering a fox that (i) exploits a different flow of solar energy than the hare and (ii) can catch the hare, but only if the latter is not smart enough. Hence, one energy flow sustains the population of hares, while the other energy flux, which supports the foxes, cares for the fitness of hares. It is tempting to speculate that the interplay between supporting and erasing energy fluxes might represent the physical essence of biological evolution (see Lotka (1922); Darlington (1972); Danchin (2009) for related discussions).

  2. 2.

    These considerations do not rule out the possibility of abiotic peptide formation (see Chaps. 5 –8 and 12). Abiogenically formed peptides may have paved the way to the biogenic protein synthesis by serving as nourishment for the first RNA-based organisms and by protecting them from different hazards (Mulkidjanian 2009).

  3. 3.

    This suggestion does not contradict the possibility of abiotic formation of amphiphilic molecules, see the chapters by Egel and Sturgis in this volume. Such abiotically formed molecules, by serving as food for the first organisms, may have paved the way to the biogenic syntheses of lipids via reversion of the respective catabolic chains (Mulkidjanian 2009).

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Acknowledgements

Valuable discussions with Drs. A.V. Bogachev, A.Y. Bychkov, D.A. Cherepanov, M. Eigen, M.Y. Galperin, E.V. Koonin, K.S. Makarova, M.J. Russell, V.P. Skulachev, R. Thauer, N.E. Voskoboynikova, and R.J.P. Williams are greatly appreciated. While editing this volume I have learned a lot from my co-editors, Drs. R. Egel and D. Lankenau, as well as from all the authors of this book. This study was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Russian Government.

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  1. School of Physics, University of Osnabrueck, Osnabrueck, 49076, Germany

    Armen Y. Mulkidjanian

  2. A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    Armen Y. Mulkidjanian

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Correspondence to Armen Y. Mulkidjanian .

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  1. , Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen Biocenter, Ole Maaløes Vej 5, Copenhagen N, 2200, Denmark

    Richard Egel

  2. Hinterer Rindweg 21, Ladenburg, 68526, Germany

    Dirk-Henner Lankenau

  3. , School of Physics and School of Biology/, University of Osnabrueck, Barbarastrasse 7, Osnabrueck, 49076, Germany

    Armen Y. Mulkidjanian

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Mulkidjanian, A.Y. (2011). Energetics of the First Life. In: Egel, R., Lankenau, DH., Mulkidjanian, A. (eds) Origins of Life: The Primal Self-Organization. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21625-1_1

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