Propose a new strategy to clarify the origin of life

2023/08/18 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Eboluzioa
• Biokimika
• Biologia

Two main strategies are used to study the origin of life: prebiotic chemistry and evolutionary biology. They now propose in an article published in PNAS magazine a new strategy that somehow joins both. It's actually a work of years, and it's based on studying the electron transport chain.

Prebiotic chemistry is a bottom-up strategy, and above all, it's experimental. In fact, through experiments, researchers try to test whether life emerges from the characteristics of the Earth before it has life. In any case, experiments would show that it was possible to create life from the starting conditions, not so. Evolutionary biology is downward, and it's about rebuilding genetic history backwards. The problem is that it is based on the genes that remain today and cannot know those who have disappeared.

The work just published has sought to address these deficiencies, combining both strategies and focusing attention on the electron transport chain. The electron transport chain is a metabolic system used by all organisms (from bacteria to humans) to produce chemical energy. This system is very varied depending on the type of vividor and the energy metabolism used. But despite the differences, researchers have shown that the first living things used these metabolic systems. And in bottom-up strategies, you've seen that in the primitive oceans, it would be possible to create and use these systems.

Therefore, the authors suggest that researching the electron transport chain with this approach can be very fruitful, on the road to the origin of life.