Abstract
This problem-oriented, exploratory and hypothesis-driven discourse toward the unknown combines several basic tenets: (i) a photo-active metal sulfide scenario of primal biogenesis in the porespace of shallow sedimentary flats, in contrast to hot deep-sea hydrothermal vent conditions; (ii) an inherently complex communal system at the common root of present life forms; (iii) a high degree of internal compartmentalization at this communal root, progressively resembling coenocytic (syncytial) super-cells; (iv) a direct connection from such communal super-cells to proto-eukaryotic macro-cell organization; and (v) multiple rounds of micro-cellular escape with streamlined reductive evolution-leading to the major prokaryotic cell lines, as well as to megaviruses and other viral lineages. Hopefully, such nontraditional concepts and approaches will contribute to coherent and plausible views about the origins and early life on Earth. In particular, the coevolutionary emergence from a communal system at the common root can most naturally explain the vast discrepancy in subcellular organization between modern eukaryotes on the one hand and both archaea and bacteria on the other.
Highlights
This problem-oriented, exploratory and hypothesis-driven discourse toward the unknown combines several basic tenets: (i) a photo-active metal sulfide scenario of primal biogenesis in the porespace of shallow sedimentary flats, in contrast to hot deep-sea hydrothermal vent conditions; (ii) an inherently complex communal system at the common root of present life forms; (iii) a high degree of internal compartmentalization at this communal root, progressively resembling coenocytic super-cells; (iv) a direct connection from such communal super-cells to proto-eukaryotic macro-cell organization; and (v) multiple rounds of micro-cellular escape with streamlined reductive evolution—
Hypotheses about the historical origins of life as we know it here on Earth are out of reach for experimental verification—or falsification, for that matter. Speaking such speculations go beyond the scope of science and technology. This does not mean, that science has no word to say about the credibility of any claim to life's tentative emergence
It is a significant feature in scientific reasoning to call in question stereotyped assertions and reassess their merits in the light of circumstantial information of current scientific standards
Summary
No subcellular entities manifest the coevolution of RNA and peptides/proteins better than ribosomes, where gene-encoded proteins nowadays are made. The transpeptidation reaction is better characterized in terms of substrate-assisted catalysis [56], in which the ribosomal RNA is not engaged directly Both the nascent peptide and the incoming amino acid are linked by high-energy bonds to terminal ribose moieties at their respective tRNA adaptors, and the catalytic function of transpeptidation has been ascribed to the vicinal OH-group of the peptide-bearing ribose [57]. This leaves the ribosome in the role of a sophisticated scaffold superstructure, acting very much as a mechanical ratcheting device to ensure processivity of several reaction cycles in a row [58,59]. Making longer peptides efficiently required protective support from rigid scaffolds, large enough to surround the nascent peptides from all sides, such as polymeric RNA in the emerging protoribosomes
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