Many scientists have worked on the problem of how life began on earth. Did it come from outer space or was it formed here on earth? At the heart of the matter is what chemistry was possible on the early Earth which could lead to the first organism, known among researchers as LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor. In this well referenced set of steps a simple and direct path is proposed towards the formation of the first organism, LUCA, which is described using observations found in the scientific literature. The path is proposed to take place in the environment provided by hot springs and in the presence of snow and ice thus creating the “FIRE and ICE” conditions. The path is one which is plausible given that the experiment cannot be re-run. Some understanding of chemistry at no higher than high school level is recommended. All steps are referenced in the scientific literature.
The path is kept deliberately straight forward without too many distracting side issues and consists of the following steps: delivery of water and organic compounds to the early Earth via comet and asteroid impacts, formation of vesicles in geysers, entrapment of clay particles or other possible templates for peptide formation , amino acids and other ingredients in the vesicles, formation of clay template-directed peptides, elongation to peptides with catalytic activity, association of catalytic peptides with aromatic compounds including purines and pyrimidine, peptide catalyzed development of nucleotides, polymerization of nucleotides to RNA, the RNA-peptide world, stereo chemical association with amino acids and peptides allow the RNA world to develop a ‘code’ which develops into the genetic code and the advent of LUCA. This is not an extensive literature review but as simplified and direct a path towards the first organism as can be envisaged using all steps found in the literature. The simple steps are by no means the only possible path but in proposing a simple and direct path the author encourages the reader to envisage that such a path is possible, indeed probable, and that other fanciful views of panspermia or even of metaphysical events of creation need not be considered.
About the Author:
Peter R Clements BSc. PhD FHGSA is a principal biochemist in child metabolics and genetics. He has 30 years’ experience at the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital in the National Referral Laboratory in developing early screening systems and running diagnostic screening services that have serviced all of Australia, New Zealand, South East Asian centres, Saudi Arabia & Qatar. Also part of a research group at the hospital which isolated and gene sequenced the enzymes responsible and developed enzyme replacement therapies for the diagnosed patients with lysosome storage disorders. These successful therapies are now marketed worldwide. In 2000 he was awarded fellow of the human genetics Society of Australasia (FHGSA) in biochemical genetics. Since leaving the hospital he has been a visiting research fellow at FoodPlus University of Adelaide, working with a nutrition group which looks at omega 3 fatty acids in the diet and the benefits for the pregnant mother. A recent research interest, in collaboration with a psychiatrist, is in developing early warning biomarkers for schizophrenia patients.
Peter is a volunteer ranger and immediate past president (8 years) for a society, Wombats SA, which manages five wildlife reserves in South Australia. Peter is an author of a speculative fiction novella “Orca World” Partridge 2014.
Keywords:
Nucleopeptide Networks, Peptides, Nucleotides, Self-Reproduction By Limited Peptides, The Rna Molecule, Molecular Evolution,
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