Jordan, S.F. and Rammu, H. and Zheludev, I.N. and Hartley, Andrew and Marechal, Amandine and Lane, N. (2019) Promotion of protocell self-assembly from mixed amphiphiles at the origin of life. Nature Ecology & Evolution , ISSN 2397-334X.
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Jordan Lane Nat Ecol Evol accepted MS 2019.pdf - Author's Accepted Manuscript Download (15MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Vesicles formed from single-chain amphiphiles (SCAs) such as fatty acids probably played an important role in the origin of life. A major criticism of the hypothesis that life arose in an early ocean hydrothermal environment is that hot temperatures, large pH gradients, high salinity and abundant divalent cations should preclude vesicle formation. However, these arguments are based on model vesicles using 1–3 SCAs, even though Fischer–Tropsch-type synthesis under hydrothermal conditions produces a wide array of fatty acids and 1-alkanols, including abundant C10–C15 compounds. Here, we show that mixtures of these C10–C15 SCAs form vesicles in aqueous solutions between pH ~6.5 and >12 at modern seawater concentrations of NaCl, Mg2+ and Ca2+. Adding C10 isoprenoids improves vesicle stability even further. Vesicles form most readily at temperatures of ~70 °C and require salinity and strongly alkaline conditions to self-assemble. Thus, alkaline hydrothermal conditions not only permit protocell formation at the origin of life but actively favour it.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences |
| Research Centres and Institutes: | Structural Molecular Biology, Institute of (ISMB) |
| Depositing User: | Amandine Marechal |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Nov 2019 12:26 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:55 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/29841 |
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