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Origin of Life: RNA World Versus Autocatalytic Anabolist

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The Prokaryotes

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Abstract

Two theories on the origin of life are characterized and compared: (1) Origin by RNA replication in a cold prebiotic broth of activated nucleotides (RNA world theory) and (2) origin by transition of metal-catalyzed carbon fixation, with ligand acceleration by organic products, in a hot volcanic-hydrothermal flow setting (autocatalytic anabolist theory).

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Acknowledgments

I express my gratitude to Claudia Huber for dedicated and ingenious experimental testing of the anabolist theory, to Helmut Simon, Adelbert Bacher and Mathias Groll for providing laboratory facilities and support, to Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for financial support, to Otto Kandler, the great catalyst without whom none of this would have come about, and to Dorothy Wächtershäuser for years of encouragement and help in formulating this and other papers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Weinstr. 8, Munich, Germany

    Dr. Günter Wächtershäuser

  2. Chapel Hill, USA

    Dr. Günter Wächtershäuser

Authors
  1. Dr. Günter Wächtershäuser
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Correspondence to Günter Wächtershäuser .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  2. Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

  3. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Stephen Lory

  4. Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

  5. Laboratory of Microbiology, Institute of Biology, Center for Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Fabiano Thompson

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Wächtershäuser, G. (2013). Origin of Life: RNA World Versus Autocatalytic Anabolist. In: Rosenberg, E., DeLong, E.F., Lory, S., Stackebrandt, E., Thompson, F. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30194-0_12

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