ReviewBio Systems2016
Coenzyme world model of the origin of life.
Review in Bio Systems, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evolution from Composome to RNA Replicase.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Stem Life: A Framework for Understanding the Prebiotic-Biotic Transition.Journal of molecular evolution · 2024Article
- Astrobiology in Space: A Comprehensive Look at the Solar System.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Evolution of Proliferative Model Protocells Highly Responsive to the Environment.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- The Legend of ATP: From Origin of Life to Precision Medicine.Metabolites · 2022Review
- Self-reproducing catalytic micelles as nanoscopic protocell precursors.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2021Review
- The "Water Problem"(Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- The Future of Origin of Life Research: Bridging Decades-Old Divisions.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- The Ribosome as a Missing Link in Prebiotic Evolution III: Over-Representation of tRNA- and rRNA-Like Sequences and Plieofunctionality of Ribosome-Related Molecules Argues for the Evolution of Primitive Genomes from Ribosomal RNA Modules.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Article
- Systems protobiology: origin of life in lipid catalytic networks.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2018Review
- In the Beginning was a Mutualism - On the Origin of Translation.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2018Article
- A Proposal of the Ur-proteome.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2018Article
- Composite Agency: Semiotics of Modularity and Guiding Interactions.Biosemiotics · 2017Article
- Evolutionary biosemiotics and multilevel construction networks.Biosemiotics · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The origin of life means the emergence of heritable and evolvable self-reproduction. However the mechanisms of primordial heredity were different from those in contemporary cells. Here I argue that primordial life had no nucleic acids; instead heritable signs were represented by isolated catalytically active self-reproducing molecules, similar to extant coenzymes, which presumably colonized surfaces of oil droplets in water. The model further assumes that coenzyme-like molecules (CLMs) changed surface properties of oil droplets (e.g., by oxidizing terminal carbons), and in this way created and sustained favorable conditions for their own self-reproduction. Such niche-dependent self-reproduction is a necessary condition for cooperation between different kinds of CLMs because they have to coexist in the same oil droplets and either succeed or perish together. Additional kinds of hereditary molecules were acquired via coalescence of oil droplets carrying different kinds of CLMs or via modification of already existing CLMs. Eventually, polymerization of CLMs became controlled by other polymers used as templates; and this kind of template-based synthesis eventually resulted in the emergence of RNA-like replicons. Apparently, oil droplets transformed into the outer membrane of cells via engulfing water, stabilization of the surface, and osmoregulation. In result, the metabolism was internalized allowing cells to accumulate free-floating resources (e.g., animoacids, ATP), which was a necessary condition for the development of protein synthesis. Thus, life originated from simple but already functional molecules, and its gradual evolution towards higher complexity was driven by cooperation and natural selection.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.