An appeal to magic? The discovery of a non-enzymatic metabolism and its role in the origins of life

Native metals, electron bifurcation, and CO 2 reduction in early biochemical evolution

(2018) Filipa L Sousa et al.   CURRENT OPINION IN MICROBIOLOGY

Acetyl Phosphate as a Primordial Energy Currency at the Origin of Life

(2018) Alexandra Whicher et al.   ORIGINS OF LIFE AND EVOLUTION OF BIOSPHERES

Reversibility of citrate synthase allows autotrophic growth of a thermophilic bacterium

(2018) Achim Mall et al.   SCIENCE

A primordial and reversible TCA cycle in a facultatively chemolithoautotrophic thermophile

(2018) Takuro Nunoura et al.   SCIENCE

Hypothesis on the Synchronistic Evolution of Autotrophy and Heterotrophy

(2018) Kirstin Gutekunst   TRENDS IN BIOCHEMICAL SCIENCES

Linked cycles of oxidative decarboxylation of glyoxylate as protometabolic analogs of the citric acid cycle

(2018) Greg Springsteen et al.   Nature Communications

Native iron reduces CO2 to intermediates and end-products of the acetyl-CoA pathway

(2018) Sreejith J. Varma et al.   Nature Ecology & Evolution

On the Early Evolution of Catabolic Pathways: A Comparative Genomics Approach. I. The Cases of Glucose, Ribose, and the Nucleobases Catabolic Routes

(2017) Mario Rivas et al.   JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR EVOLUTION

Nonenzymatic gluconeogenesis-like formation of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate in ice

(2017) Christoph B. Messner et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The self-inhibitory nature of metabolic networks and its alleviation through compartmentalization

(2017) Mohammad Tauqeer Alam et al.   Nature Communications

Sulfate radicals enable a non-enzymatic Krebs cycle precursor

(2017) Markus A. Keller et al.   Nature Ecology & Evolution

Metals promote sequences of the reverse Krebs cycle

(2017) Kamila B. Muchowska et al.   Nature Ecology & Evolution

Spontaneous Emergence of S -Adenosylmethionine and the Evolution of Methylation

(2016) Paola Laurino et al.   ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION

On the Origin of Heterotrophy

(2016) Peter Schönheit et al.   TRENDS IN MICROBIOLOGY

Is LUCA a thermophilic progenote?

(2016) Johann Peter Gogarten et al.   Nature Microbiology

The physiology and habitat of the last universal common ancestor

(2016) Madeline C. Weiss et al.   Nature Microbiology

Conditional iron and pH-dependent activity of a non-enzymatic glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway

(2016) M. A. Keller et al.   Science Advances

The Origin of Life-Out of the Blue

(2015) John D. Sutherland   ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION

The widespread role of non-enzymatic reactions in cellular metabolism

(2015) Markus A Keller et al.   CURRENT OPINION IN BIOTECHNOLOGY

Common origins of RNA, protein and lipid precursors in a cyanosulfidic protometabolism

(2015) Bhavesh H. Patel et al.   Nature Chemistry

Autophagy: Self-preservation through cannibalism of proteins and organelles

(2015) Claudiu A. Vlada et al.   SURGERY

The RNA world and the origin of metabolic enzymes: Figure 1

(2014) Markus Ralser   BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY TRANSACTIONS

The return of metabolism: biochemistry and physiology of the pentose phosphate pathway

(2014) Anna Stincone et al.   BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS

Iron isotopes in an Archean ocean analogue

(2014) Vincent Busigny et al.   GEOCHIMICA ET COSMOCHIMICA ACTA

Carbohydrate Metabolism in Archaea: Current Insights into Unusual Enzymes and Pathways and Their Regulation

(2014) C. Brasen et al.   MICROBIOLOGY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY REVIEWS

Non-enzymatic glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway-like reactions in a plausible Archean ocean

(2014) M. A. Keller et al.   Molecular Systems Biology

Prebiotic metabolic networks?

(2014) P. L. Luisi   Molecular Systems Biology

A Bioenergetic Basis for Membrane Divergence in Archaea and Bacteria

(2014) Víctor Sojo et al.   PLOS BIOLOGY

The Origin of RNA and “My Grandfather’s Axe”

(2013) Nicholas V. Hud et al.   CHEMISTRY & BIOLOGY

Chemical and genomic evolution of enzyme-catalyzed reaction networks

(2013) Minoru Kanehisa   FEBS LETTERS

Authigenic iron oxide proxies for marine zinc over geological time and implications for eukaryotic metallome evolution

(2013) L. J. Robbins et al.   Geobiology

A community-driven global reconstruction of human metabolism

(2013) Ines Thiele et al.   NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY

Competition between model protocells driven by an encapsulated catalyst

(2013) Katarzyna Adamala et al.   Nature Chemistry

An Open Question on the Origin of Life: The First Forms of Metabolism

(2012) Pier Luigi Luisi   CHEMISTRY & BIODIVERSITY

Prebiotic synthesis of simple sugars by photoredox systems chemistry

(2012) Dougal Ritson et al.   Nature Chemistry

Reconstruction of Ancestral Metabolic Enzymes Reveals Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Evolutionary Innovation through Gene Duplication

(2012) Karin Voordeckers et al.   PLOS BIOLOGY

The Biological Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vent as a Model to Study Carbon Dioxide Capturing Enzymes

(2011) Zoran Minic et al.   Marine Drugs

Lack of evolvability in self-sustaining autocatalytic networks constraints metabolism-first scenarios for the origin of life

(2010) V. Vasas et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Historical Development of Origins Research

(2010) A. Lazcano   Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology

Synthesis of activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides in prebiotically plausible conditions

(2009) Matthew W. Powner et al.   NATURE

The origin and evolution of modern metabolism

(2008) Gustavo Caetano-Anollés et al.   INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOCHEMISTRY & CELL BIOLOGY

A consensus yeast metabolic network reconstruction obtained from a community approach to systems biology

(2008) Markus J Herrgård et al.   NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY

The Implausibility of Metabolic Cycles on the Prebiotic Earth

(2008) Leslie E Orgel   PLOS BIOLOGY