ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2012
Origin of first cells at terrestrial, anoxic geothermal fields.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 159 papers.
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Who cites it
159 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Emergence of Life in the Light of Evolution.ArXiv · 2026Article
- Peptide-Metal Cation Coacervate Microdroplets as Membrane-free Protocells with Enhanced Light-Induced Catalysis.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Abiotic synthesis of RNase-resistant phosphodiester and pyrophosphate-linked polymers via thermodynamically controlled wet-dry cycling.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Potassium and the kidney.Nature reviews. Nephrology · 2026Review
- Potassium ion homeostasis modulates mitochondrial function.The Journal of cell biology · 2026Article
- Redox chemistry of early Earth and the origin of life.Communications chemistry · 2026Review
- Molecular Dissipative Structuring: The Fundamental Creative Force in Biology.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Water Versus Land on Temperate Rocky Planets.Space science reviews · 2026Review
- The Origin of Life and Cellular Systems: A Continuum from Prebiotic Chemistry to Biodiversity.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Planetary sources of bio-essential nutrients on a prebiotic world.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Origins of life: the possible and the actual.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Revisiting the Eoarchean Akilia quartz-pyroxene rock with potassium isotopes: Implications for early-ocean sedimentation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- KMaterials today. Bio · 2025Article
- Origin of the RNA World in Cold Hadean Geothermal Fields Enriched in Zinc and Potassium: Abiogenesis as a Positive Fallout from the Moon-Forming Impact?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Prebiotic formation of thioesters via cyclic anhydrides as a key step in the emergence of metabolism.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- The Origin(s) of LUCA: Computer Simulation of a New Theory.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Respiratory processes of early-evolved hyperthermophiles in sulfidic and low-oxygen geothermal microbial communities.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Impact and applications of cyclic di-GMP second messenger signaling in biotechnology and medicine.Sustainable microbiology · 2025Review
- Dormancy in the origin, evolution and persistence of life on Earth.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Review
99 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
All cells contain much more potassium, phosphate, and transition metals than modern (or reconstructed primeval) oceans, lakes, or rivers. Cells maintain ion gradients by using sophisticated, energy-dependent membrane enzymes (membrane pumps) that are embedded in elaborate ion-tight membranes. The first cells could possess neither ion-tight membranes nor membrane pumps, so the concentrations of small inorganic molecules and ions within protocells and in their environment would equilibrate. Hence, the ion composition of modern cells might reflect the inorganic ion composition of the habitats of protocells. We attempted to reconstruct the "hatcheries" of the first cells by combining geochemical analysis with phylogenomic scrutiny of the inorganic ion requirements of universal components of modern cells. These ubiquitous, and by inference primordial, proteins and functional systems show affinity to and functional requirement for K(+), Zn(2+), Mn(2+), and phosphate. Thus, protocells must have evolved in habitats with a high K(+)/Na(+) ratio and relatively high concentrations of Zn, Mn, and phosphorous compounds. Geochemical reconstruction shows that the ionic composition conducive to the origin of cells could not have existed in marine settings but is compatible with emissions of vapor-dominated zones of inland geothermal systems. Under the anoxic, CO(2)-dominated primordial atmosphere, the chemistry of basins at geothermal fields would resemble the internal milieu of modern cells. The precellular stages of evolution might have transpired in shallow ponds of condensed and cooled geothermal vapor that were lined with porous silicate minerals mixed with metal sulfides and enriched in K(+), Zn(2+), and phosphorous compounds.
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