The Prebiotic Kitchen: A Guide to Composing Prebiotic Soup Recipes to Test Origins of Life Hypotheses

“Prebiotic soup” often features in discussions of origins of life research, both as a theoretical concept when discussing abiological pathways to modern biochemical building blocks and, more recently, as a feedstock in prebiotic chemistry experiments focused on discovering emergent, systems-level pr...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Lena Vincent, Stephanie Colón-Santos, H. James Cleaves, David A. Baum, Sarah E. Maurer
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	prebiotic chemistry prebiotic synthesis prebiotic soup prebiotic mixture origin of life Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/35250eb718a94c2c9ecf7960f823460e
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:35250eb718a94c2c9ecf7960f823460e
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:35250eb718a94c2c9ecf7960f823460e2021-11-25T18:11:19ZThe Prebiotic Kitchen: A Guide to Composing Prebiotic Soup Recipes to Test Origins of Life Hypotheses10.3390/life111112212075-1729https://doaj.org/article/35250eb718a94c2c9ecf7960f823460e2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/11/11/1221https://doaj.org/toc/2075-1729“Prebiotic soup” often features in discussions of origins of life research, both as a theoretical concept when discussing abiological pathways to modern biochemical building blocks and, more recently, as a feedstock in prebiotic chemistry experiments focused on discovering emergent, systems-level processes such as polymerization, encapsulation, and evolution. However, until now, little systematic analysis has gone into the design of well-justified prebiotic mixtures, which are needed to facilitate experimental replicability and comparison among researchers. This paper explores principles that should be considered in choosing chemical mixtures for prebiotic chemistry experiments by reviewing the natural environmental conditions that might have created such mixtures and then suggests reasonable guidelines for designing recipes. We discuss both “assembled” mixtures, which are made by mixing reagent grade chemicals, and “synthesized” mixtures, which are generated directly from diversity-generating primary prebiotic syntheses. We discuss different practical concerns including how to navigate the tremendous uncertainty in the chemistry of the early Earth and how to balance the desire for using prebiotically realistic mixtures with experimental tractability and replicability. Examples of two assembled mixtures, one based on materials likely delivered by carbonaceous meteorites and one based on spark discharge synthesis, are presented to illustrate these challenges. We explore alternative procedures for making synthesized mixtures using recursive chemical reaction systems whose outputs attempt to mimic atmospheric and geochemical synthesis. Other experimental conditions such as pH and ionic strength are also considered. We argue that developing a handful of standardized prebiotic recipes may facilitate coordination among researchers and enable the identification of the most promising mechanisms by which complex prebiotic mixtures were “tamed” during the origin of life to give rise to key living processes such as self-propagation, information processing, and adaptive evolution. We end by advocating for the development of a public prebiotic chemistry database containing experimental methods (including soup recipes), results, and analytical pipelines for analyzing complex prebiotic mixtures.Lena VincentStephanie Colón-SantosH. James CleavesDavid A. BaumSarah E. MaurerMDPI AGarticleprebiotic chemistryprebiotic synthesisprebiotic soupprebiotic mixtureorigin of lifeScienceQENLife, Vol 11, Iss 1221, p 1221 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	prebiotic chemistry prebiotic synthesis prebiotic soup prebiotic mixture origin of life Science Q
spellingShingle	prebiotic chemistry prebiotic synthesis prebiotic soup prebiotic mixture origin of life Science Q Lena Vincent Stephanie Colón-Santos H. James Cleaves David A. Baum Sarah E. Maurer The Prebiotic Kitchen: A Guide to Composing Prebiotic Soup Recipes to Test Origins of Life Hypotheses
description	“Prebiotic soup” often features in discussions of origins of life research, both as a theoretical concept when discussing abiological pathways to modern biochemical building blocks and, more recently, as a feedstock in prebiotic chemistry experiments focused on discovering emergent, systems-level processes such as polymerization, encapsulation, and evolution. However, until now, little systematic analysis has gone into the design of well-justified prebiotic mixtures, which are needed to facilitate experimental replicability and comparison among researchers. This paper explores principles that should be considered in choosing chemical mixtures for prebiotic chemistry experiments by reviewing the natural environmental conditions that might have created such mixtures and then suggests reasonable guidelines for designing recipes. We discuss both “assembled” mixtures, which are made by mixing reagent grade chemicals, and “synthesized” mixtures, which are generated directly from diversity-generating primary prebiotic syntheses. We discuss different practical concerns including how to navigate the tremendous uncertainty in the chemistry of the early Earth and how to balance the desire for using prebiotically realistic mixtures with experimental tractability and replicability. Examples of two assembled mixtures, one based on materials likely delivered by carbonaceous meteorites and one based on spark discharge synthesis, are presented to illustrate these challenges. We explore alternative procedures for making synthesized mixtures using recursive chemical reaction systems whose outputs attempt to mimic atmospheric and geochemical synthesis. Other experimental conditions such as pH and ionic strength are also considered. We argue that developing a handful of standardized prebiotic recipes may facilitate coordination among researchers and enable the identification of the most promising mechanisms by which complex prebiotic mixtures were “tamed” during the origin of life to give rise to key living processes such as self-propagation, information processing, and adaptive evolution. We end by advocating for the development of a public prebiotic chemistry database containing experimental methods (including soup recipes), results, and analytical pipelines for analyzing complex prebiotic mixtures.
format	article
author	Lena Vincent Stephanie Colón-Santos H. James Cleaves David A. Baum Sarah E. Maurer
author_facet	Lena Vincent Stephanie Colón-Santos H. James Cleaves David A. Baum Sarah E. Maurer
author_sort	Lena Vincent
title	The Prebiotic Kitchen: A Guide to Composing Prebiotic Soup Recipes to Test Origins of Life Hypotheses
title_short	The Prebiotic Kitchen: A Guide to Composing Prebiotic Soup Recipes to Test Origins of Life Hypotheses
title_full	The Prebiotic Kitchen: A Guide to Composing Prebiotic Soup Recipes to Test Origins of Life Hypotheses
title_fullStr	The Prebiotic Kitchen: A Guide to Composing Prebiotic Soup Recipes to Test Origins of Life Hypotheses
title_full_unstemmed	The Prebiotic Kitchen: A Guide to Composing Prebiotic Soup Recipes to Test Origins of Life Hypotheses
title_sort	prebiotic kitchen: a guide to composing prebiotic soup recipes to test origins of life hypotheses
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/35250eb718a94c2c9ecf7960f823460e
work_keys_str_mv	AT lenavincent theprebiotickitchenaguidetocomposingprebioticsouprecipestotestoriginsoflifehypotheses AT stephaniecolonsantos theprebiotickitchenaguidetocomposingprebioticsouprecipestotestoriginsoflifehypotheses AT hjamescleaves theprebiotickitchenaguidetocomposingprebioticsouprecipestotestoriginsoflifehypotheses AT davidabaum theprebiotickitchenaguidetocomposingprebioticsouprecipestotestoriginsoflifehypotheses AT sarahemaurer theprebiotickitchenaguidetocomposingprebioticsouprecipestotestoriginsoflifehypotheses AT lenavincent prebiotickitchenaguidetocomposingprebioticsouprecipestotestoriginsoflifehypotheses AT stephaniecolonsantos prebiotickitchenaguidetocomposingprebioticsouprecipestotestoriginsoflifehypotheses AT hjamescleaves prebiotickitchenaguidetocomposingprebioticsouprecipestotestoriginsoflifehypotheses AT davidabaum prebiotickitchenaguidetocomposingprebioticsouprecipestotestoriginsoflifehypotheses AT sarahemaurer prebiotickitchenaguidetocomposingprebioticsouprecipestotestoriginsoflifehypotheses
_version_	1718411490733588480

The Prebiotic Kitchen: A Guide to Composing Prebiotic Soup Recipes to Test Origins of Life Hypotheses

Ejemplares similares