NDLI: A Hypothesis About the Origin of Biology

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Woolf, Neville J.
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	It is proposed that processes characteristic of biology today, autocatalysis, selection of molecules for linkage by their electrical shape, and evolution by survival selection were also the processes that initiated biology. A reconnaissance is made of both paradoxes and potential questions. It is argued that the minimal requirement for initiating Darwinian evolution is not a molecule copying process, but a linkage copying process. Survival selection evolution does not require a heterocatalytic polymer and a separate replicase process until there is uncertainty where molecular additions will occur. It is argued that a linkage directing process will be found for a lipid membrane (though this needs to be verified) and may in the right environment result in initial evolution, including initiation of α-helices, the development of a single chirality and NTPs. The system has at this point become sufficiently complex that higher precision copying is needed. However it seems likely that this state is able to generate the first miniature ribozymes and their replicases, and so satisfies the prior requirement. With the proposed requirements, it is likely that the development of polymers was within membranes.
Starting Page	257
Ending Page	274
Page Count	18
File Format	PDF
ISSN	01696149
Journal	Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres
Volume Number	45
Issue Number	1-2
e-ISSN	15730875
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2015-03-27
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Subject Keyword	Life Autocatalysis Membrane NTP Helix Life Sciences Astrophysics and Astroparticles Earth Sciences Astronomy, Observations and Techniques Biochemistry
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Medicine Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Space and Planetary Science

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