期刊
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
卷 289, 期 1986, 页码 -出版社
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1469
关键词
origin of life; protocells; protometabolism; nucleotide cofactors; autocatalysis; mathematical model
资金
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/F500351/1, EP/I017909/1]
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/R010579/1]
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/S003681/1]
- bgc3
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/V003542/1]
This study reveals that the universal core of metabolism could have emerged from thermodynamically favored prebiotic pathways at the origin of life. Mathematical simulations show that nucleotide catalysis can promote protocell growth, but only when nucleotides directly catalyze CO2 fixation. These findings offer a new framework for the emergence of greater metabolic complexity.
The universal core of metabolism could have emerged from thermodynamically favoured prebiotic pathways at the origin of life. Starting with H-2 and CO2, the synthesis of amino acids and mixed fatty acids, which self-assemble into protocells, is favoured under warm anoxic conditions. Here, we address whether it is possible for protocells to evolve greater metabolic complexity, through positive feedbacks involving nucleotide catalysis. Using mathematical simulations to model metabolic heredity in protocells, based on branch points in protometabolic flux, we show that nucleotide catalysis can indeed promote protocell growth. This outcome only occurs when nucleotides directly catalyse CO2 fixation. Strong nucleotide catalysis of other pathways (e.g. fatty acids and amino acids) generally unbalances metabolism and slows down protocell growth, and when there is competition between catalytic functions cell growth collapses. Autocatalysis of nucleotide synthesis can promote growth but only if nucleotides also catalyse CO2 fixation; autocatalysis alone leads to the accumulation of nucleotides at the expense of CO2 fixation and protocell growth rate. Our findings offer a new framework for the emergence of greater metabolic complexity, in which nucleotides catalyse broad-spectrum processes such as CO2 fixation, hydrogenation and phosphorylation important to the emergence of genetic heredity at the origin of life.
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