Details of the study

A key part of the new findings by a team at the Scripps Research Institute in California is that a chemical process called phosphorylation may have occurred earlier than previously thought.

This process brings additional functions to the molecule by adding new groups of atoms, including phosphorus; These are functions that can transform spherical fat clusters called protocells into more advanced, versatile, stable and chemically advanced versions of themselves. active.

These protocells are thought to have been vital building blocks for biochemistry more than 3.5 billion years ago, possibly emerging from hot springs beneath the ocean, leading to the evolution of more complex biological structures.

At some point we all question where we come from. This discovery helps us better understand the chemical environment of early Earth so we can elucidate the origins of life and how it may have evolved on early Earth.
says chemist Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy of the Scripps Research Institute.

Krishnamurthy and colleagues proposed that phosphorylation must have occurred early in protocell formation because this process is so common in the body’s biological functions.

Recreating conditions in the laboratory that likely corresponded to the early days of the Earth, the team attempted to create more complex vesicles—bubble-like structures similar to protocells that facilitate cellular processes—by combining chemicals such as fatty acids and glycerol.

During experiments, the vesicles were able to switch from a fatty acid environment to a phospholipid environment, suggesting a similar chemical environment may have existed four billion years ago, the scientists said.

Vesicles inside the protocellular structure: video

The team describes this as a “plausible way” to create phospholipids, a complex type of vesicle membrane. However, much more research needs to be done before we can be sure how life on Earth emerged.

Of course, it’s not easy to look back billions of years, but scientists continue to make discoveries about what happened soon after Earth formed, all of which help us study life on other planets.