Abstract
The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the ancestor of all life on Earth. It is an inferred intermediate state between the origin of life and the first free living cells. Lateral gene transfer being common among prokaryotes makes it difficult to determine what LUCA looked like and because of these challenges, many hypotheses exist about the nature of LUCA and the universal tree of life. Recent studies suggest that LUCA most likely lived from chemical reactions (not sunlight), obtained its carbon from CO2 and used H2 as a source of energy and electrons along a reaction sequence that strongly resembles the modern acetyl-CoA pathway. It probably arose and lived in a serpentinizing (H2-producing) hydrothermal vent which provided CO2 as its carbon source and H2 as its reductant, transition metals as catalysts and cofactors as well as ion- and temperature-gradients.
Published Version
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