Hybrid organic–inorganic structures trigger the formation of primitive cell-like compartments

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2300491120
• Publication Date: 2023-08-10T17:47:24Z
• Authors: Silvia Holler; Stuart Bartlett; Richard J. G. Löf...; Federica Casiraghi; Claro Ignacio Sai...; Julyan H. E. Cart...; Martin M. Hanczyc
• Keywords: Protocell; Abiogenesis

Alkaline hydrothermal vents have become a candidate setting for the origins of life on Earth and beyond. This is due to several key features including presence gradients temperature, redox potential, pH, availability inorganic minerals, existence network pore spaces that could served as primitive compartments. Chemical gardens long been used experimental proxies vents. paper investigates-10pc]Please note spelling following author name in manuscript differs from provided article metadata: Richard J. G. Löffler. The has retained; please confirm. set prebiotic interactions between such structures fatty alcohols. integration medium-chain alcohol, decanol, within these produced range emergent 3 dimensions at both macroscopic microscopic scales. Fatty alcohols can be considered plausible amphiphiles might assisted formation protocellular vesicles. experiments presented herein show neither chemical nor decanol alone promote vesicle formation, but grown which then integrated into mineral structures, support formation. These observations suggest interaction played an important role emergence protocells, yielding evolution living cells.