Life is a product of molecular ordering “machine”

Abstract

The main characteristic of life is the ordered state of living matter and the growth of order within the whole history of biological evolution. Any sustainable development requires the presence of an attractor. It is shown that consecutive ordering is due to steady-state systems. A novelty in the proposed concept consists in a combination of the principle of entropy disproportionation as a source of ordering with the steady state of a process responsible for the presence of an attractor. A remarkable property of ATP from the viewpoint of the ordering mechanism under consideration is that the reaction of ATP hydrolysis is universally conjugated with reactions of synthesis of biologically important polymers. Therefore, the appearance of ATP rather than of the “RNA world,” as in the well-known paradigm, must be considered the onset of the emergence and evolution of life. The chemical unit cell with ATP was the earliest form of the universal ordering “machine.” The proposed model of the ordering mechanism explains the uniqueness of the protein and nucleotide form of life in the Universe and some specific features of evolution that have not found explanation within the Darwinism theory, and also substantiate the requirement to the geological situation in which life appeared. The last ones, in addition to the usual conditions, i.e., the availability of an energy source and water, and an acceptable range of temperature, also involve the presence of a highly reducing environment and cyclic changes of environmental conditions, for example, alternation of day and night, drying and moistening, heat and cold, etc.