Evolution Before Origin: A Conceptual and Experimental Framework
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Matange, Kavita
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Abstract
The search for chemical processes preceding the emergence of life presents a significant challenge in scientific inquiry. The development of biochemistry on early Earth presents some of the most creative chemistry in the known universe. In this work, we present a novel approach to advance our understanding of chemistry on early Earth based on wet-dry cycling. We outline a conceptual and experimental model of chemical evolution. As context, we outline currently accepted models of the origins of life and emphasize the utility of chemical evolution. With water at the center of the model, we demonstrate or infer that chemical systems are capable of selection, coupling, and creativity. We outline the framework of our wet-dry cycling-based model of chemical evolution and hold that during early chemical evolution, molecules were selected based on solubility in water, condensation-dehydration chemistry and resistance to hydrolysis upon assembly assemblies. Our model maps evolutionary concepts onto chemical processes. (a) a generation is a single wet-dry cycle; (b) heredity is information passed from one generation to the next; (c) information is associated with non-random chemical composition; (d) selection results in inheritance of certain molecular species over generations; (e) fitness confers persistence (i.e.,
survival) of molecules and specific molecular assemblies; (f) variation is spatiotemporal differences in information; and (g) water is an “energy currency” that links reactions and, upon changing activity, alters reaction free energies. In this work, we have employed wet-dry cycling and observed unexpected experimental outcomes like combinatorial compression, synchronicity, and continuous chemical change. We have suggested that biologically relevant concepts like adaptation and exaptation are universal, synergistic, and recursive, and along with biopolymers, apply to small molecules such as metabolites, cofactors, and building blocks of extant polymers. Altogether, this research establishes a platform for the analysis of complex mixtures at the Origin of Life and offers new horizons for the mapping of evolutionary phenomena onto prebiotic systems.
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2024-04-27
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Dissertation