Abstract
All known life forms trace back to a last universal common ancestor (LUCA) that witnessed the onset of Darwinian evolution. One can ask questions about LUCA in various ways, the most common way being to look for traits that are common to all cells, like ribosomes or the genetic code. With the availability of genomes, we can, however, also ask what genes are ancient by virtue of their phylogeny rather than by virtue of being universal. That approach, undertaken recently, leads to a different view of LUCA than we have had in the past, one that fits well with the harsh geochemical setting of early Earth and resembles the biology of prokaryotes that today inhabit the Earth's crust.
Highlights
The very earliest phases of life on Earth witnessed the origin of life and genetics from the elements
One can ask questions about last universal common ancestor (LUCA) in various ways, the most common way being to look for traits that are common to all cells, like ribosomes or the genetic code
Most earlier depictions of LUCA focused on what it was like [16]; for example, whether it was like RNA [86], like a virus [87], whether it was like prokaryotes in terms of its genetic code [88], or like eukaryotes in terms of its cellular organization [22]
Summary
Volkswagenstiftung.de/en/funding.html), and GIF ([I-1321-203.13/2015] http://www.gif.org.il/Pages/ default.aspx) to WFM. All known life forms trace back to a last universal common ancestor (LUCA) that witnessed the onset of Darwinian evolution. One can ask questions about LUCA in various ways, the most common way being to look for traits that are common to all cells, like ribosomes or the genetic code. With the availability of genomes, we can, ask what genes are ancient by virtue of their phylogeny rather than by virtue of being universal. Undertaken recently, leads to a different view of LUCA than we have had in the past, one that fits well with the harsh geochemical setting of early Earth and resembles the biology of prokaryotes that today inhabit the Earth’s crust
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