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Life
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Feature Papers in Origins of Life 2024
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Feature Papers in Origins of Life 2024

A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Origin of Life".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 13 December 2024 | Viewed by 4790

Special Issue Editor

Dr. James R. Lyons

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
Interests: astrobiology; prebiotic chemistry; photochemistry; hydrothermal vents; amino acids; RNA world; phospholipids; solar nebula; photosynthesis; exoplanets

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to introduce “Feature Papers in Origins of Life”, a Life Special Issue. This Special Issue encompasses a broad range of topics related to the origins of life. We encourage submissions from both early career researchers and established researchers in the field, as our aim for this Special Issue is to publish innovative research on all aspects of the origins of life and to provide a unique perspective towards the future of the field.

All researchers are invited to contribute submissions which focus on, but are not limited to, the following foundational and emergent research topics in the origins of life and related areas:

  • Astrobiology: all topics within astrobiology, including analog environments on Earth, and the delivery of organics to Earth and other planets from space.
  • Astrochemistry: organics and prebiotic molecular precursors in molecular clouds, protoplanetary disks, and the solar nebula.
  • Planetary science: early conditions on Earth, Venus, Mars, and terrestrial exoplanets.
  • Geology, geochemistry and geobiology: early surface conditions on terrestrial-type planets.
  • Prebiotic chemistry: syntheses of monomeric and polymeric prebiotic molecules.
  • Chirality: mechanisms for the preferential selection of enantiomers of chiral molecules.
  • Chemical evolution: primitive catalysis and mechanisms for self-replication and Darwinian selection.
  • Protocells: membrane synthesis, encapsulation, and primitive ion channels.
  • Synthetic biology: non-traditional chemical systems capable of Darwinian evolution.
  • Complex systems: the chemical evolution of simple and more complex molecular precursors.

Previous Special Issue: https://susy.mdpi.com/special_issue/process/1337809

Dr. James R. Lyons
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • astrobiology
  • astrochemistry
  • planetary science
  • geobiology
  • prebiotic chemistry
  • chirality
  • chemical evolution
  • protocells
  • synthetic biology
  • complex systems

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 1864 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Core Formose Cycle: Catalysis and Competition
by Jeremy Kua and L. Philip Tripoli
Life 2024, 14(8), 933; https://doi.org/10.3390/life14080933 - 25 Jul 2024
Viewed by 440
Abstract
The core autocatalytic cycle of the formose reaction may be enhanced or eroded by the presence of simple molecules at life’s origin. Utilizing quantum chemistry, we calculate the thermodynamics and kinetics of reactions both within the core cycle and those that deplete the [...] Read more.
The core autocatalytic cycle of the formose reaction may be enhanced or eroded by the presence of simple molecules at life’s origin. Utilizing quantum chemistry, we calculate the thermodynamics and kinetics of reactions both within the core cycle and those that deplete the reactants and intermediates, such as the Cannizzaro reaction. We find that via disproportionation of aldehydes into carboxylic acids and alcohols, the Cannizzaro reaction furnishes simple catalysts for a variety of reactions. We also find that ammonia can catalyze both in-cycle and Cannizzaro reactions while hydrogen sulfide does not; both, however, play a role in sequestering reactants and intermediates in the web of potential reactions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Origins of Life 2024)
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24 pages, 1640 KiB  
Article
The Pigment World: Life’s Origins as Photon-Dissipating Pigments
by Karo Michaelian
Life 2024, 14(7), 912; https://doi.org/10.3390/life14070912 - 22 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1072
Abstract
Many of the fundamental molecules of life share extraordinary pigment-like optical properties in the long-wavelength UV-C spectral region. These include strong photon absorption and rapid (sub-pico-second) dissipation of the induced electronic excitation energy into heat through peaked conical intersections. These properties have been [...] Read more.
Many of the fundamental molecules of life share extraordinary pigment-like optical properties in the long-wavelength UV-C spectral region. These include strong photon absorption and rapid (sub-pico-second) dissipation of the induced electronic excitation energy into heat through peaked conical intersections. These properties have been attributed to a “natural selection” of molecules resistant to the dangerous UV-C light incident on Earth’s surface during the Archean. In contrast, the “thermodynamic dissipation theory for the origin of life” argues that, far from being detrimental, UV-C light was, in fact, the thermodynamic potential driving the dissipative structuring of life at its origin. The optical properties were thus the thermodynamic “design goals” of microscopic dissipative structuring of organic UV-C pigments, today known as the “fundamental molecules of life”, from common precursors under this light. This “UV-C Pigment World” evolved towards greater solar photon dissipation through more complex dissipative structuring pathways, eventually producing visible pigments to dissipate less energetic, but higher intensity, visible photons up to wavelengths of the “red edge”. The propagation and dispersal of organic pigments, catalyzed by animals, and their coupling with abiotic dissipative processes, such as the water cycle, culminated in the apex photon dissipative structure, today’s biosphere. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Origins of Life 2024)
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17 pages, 2209 KiB  
Article
Autocatalytic Selection as a Driver for the Origin of Life
by Mike P. Williamson
Life 2024, 14(5), 590; https://doi.org/10.3390/life14050590 - 6 May 2024
Viewed by 1177
Abstract
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was revolutionary because it provided a mechanism by which variation could be selected. This mechanism can only operate on living systems and thus cannot be applied to the origin of life. Here, we propose a viable [...] Read more.
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was revolutionary because it provided a mechanism by which variation could be selected. This mechanism can only operate on living systems and thus cannot be applied to the origin of life. Here, we propose a viable alternative mechanism for prebiotic systems: autocatalytic selection, in which molecules catalyze reactions and processes that lead to increases in their concentration. Crucially, this provides a driver for increases in concentrations of molecules to a level that permits prebiotic metabolism. We show how this can produce high levels of amino acids, sugar phosphates, nucleotides and lipids and then lead on to polymers. Our outline is supported by a set of guidelines to support the identification of the most likely prebiotic routes. Most of the steps in this pathway are already supported by experimental results. These proposals generate a coherent and viable set of pathways that run from established Hadean geochemistry to the beginning of life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Origins of Life 2024)
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Review

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18 pages, 1836 KiB  
Review
The Winding Road from Origin to Emergence (of Life)
by Wolfgang Nitschke, Orion Farr, Nil Gaudu, Chloé Truong, François Guyot, Michael J. Russell and Simon Duval
Life 2024, 14(5), 607; https://doi.org/10.3390/life14050607 - 9 May 2024
Viewed by 1491
Abstract
Humanity’s strive to understand why and how life appeared on planet Earth dates back to prehistoric times. At the beginning of the 19th century, empirical biology started to tackle this question yielding both Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and the paradigm that the [...] Read more.
Humanity’s strive to understand why and how life appeared on planet Earth dates back to prehistoric times. At the beginning of the 19th century, empirical biology started to tackle this question yielding both Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and the paradigm that the crucial trigger putting life on its tracks was the appearance of organic molecules. In parallel to these developments in the biological sciences, physics and physical chemistry saw the fundamental laws of thermodynamics being unraveled. Towards the end of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century, the tensions between thermodynamics and the “organic-molecules-paradigm” became increasingly difficult to ignore, culminating in Erwin Schrödinger’s 1944 formulation of a thermodynamics-compliant vision of life and, consequently, the prerequisites for its appearance. We will first review the major milestones over the last 200 years in the biological and the physical sciences, relevant to making sense of life and its origins and then discuss the more recent reappraisal of the relative importance of metal ions vs. organic molecules in performing the essential processes of a living cell. Based on this reassessment and the modern understanding of biological free energy conversion (aka bioenergetics), we consider that scenarios wherein life emerges from an abiotic chemiosmotic process are both thermodynamics-compliant and the most parsimonious proposed so far. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Origins of Life 2024)
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