ReviewLife (Basel, Switzerland)2016
A Self-Assembled Aggregate Composed of a Fatty Acid Membrane and the Building Blocks of Biological Polymers Provides a First Step in the Emergence of Protocells.
Review in Life (Basel, Switzerland), 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Growth of fatty acid vesicles coupled with amino acid sequences of peptides toward evolvable protocells.Communications chemistry · 2026Article
- The Transformation Experiment of Frederick Griffith II: Inclusion of Cellular Heredity for the Creation of Novel Microorganisms.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Ufasomes as Topical/Transdermal Drug Delivery System: Structural Components, Preparation Techniques and Therapeutic Application.Current drug delivery · 2025Review
- Expanded Archaeal Genomes Shed New Light on the Evolution of Isoprenoid Biosynthesis.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Natural soda lakes provide compatible conditions for RNA and membrane function that could have enabled the origin of life.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- The GARD Prebiotic Reproduction Model Described in Order and Complexity.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Insights into Early Steps of Decanoic Acid Self-Assemblies under Prebiotic Temperatures Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations.Membranes · 2023Article
- Spontaneous Formation of Functional Structures in Messy Environments.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Prebiotic Membranes and Micelles Do Not Inhibit Peptide Formation During Dehydration.Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology · 2022Article
- Spontaneous assembly of redox-active iron-sulfur clusters at low concentrations of cysteine.Nature communications · 2021Article
- The interaction of heat shock proteins with cellular membranes: a historical perspective.Cell stress & chaperones · 2021Review
- Binding of Dipeptides to Fatty Acid Membranes Explains Their Colocalization in Protocells but Does Not Select for Them Relative to Unjoined Amino Acids.The journal of physical chemistry. B · 2021Article
- Spontaneous emergence of membrane-forming protoamphiphiles from a lipid-amino acid mixture under wet-dry cycles.Chemical science · 2021Article
- Heat shock proteins and the biogenesis of cellular membranes.Cell stress & chaperones · 2021Review
- A Step toward Molecular Evolution of RNA: Ribose Binds to Prebiotic Fatty Acid Membranes, and Nucleosides Bind Better than Individual Bases Do.Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology · 2020Article
- Prebiotic amino acids bind to and stabilize prebiotic fatty acid membranes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Investigating Prebiotic Protocells for A Comprehensive Understanding of the Origins of Life: A Prebiotic Systems Chemistry Perspective.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Review
- Molecular Evolution in a Peptide-Vesicle System.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
- The Role of Lipid Membranes in Life's Origin.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2017Review
- Selection of Prebiotic Molecules in Amphiphilic Environments.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
We propose that the first step in the origin of cellular life on Earth was the self-assembly of fatty acids with the building blocks of RNA and protein, resulting in a stable aggregate. This scheme provides explanations for the selection and concentration of the prebiotic components of cells; the stabilization and growth of early membranes; the catalysis of biopolymer synthesis; and the co-localization of membranes, RNA and protein. In this article, we review the evidence and rationale for the formation of the proposed aggregate: (i) the well-established phenomenon of self-assembly of fatty acids to form vesicles; (ii) our published evidence that nucleobases and sugars bind to and stabilize such vesicles; and (iii) the reasons why amino acids likely do so as well. We then explain how the conformational constraints and altered chemical environment due to binding of the components to the membrane could facilitate the formation of nucleosides, oligonucleotides and peptides. We conclude by discussing how the resulting oligomers, even if short and random, could have increased vesicle stability and growth more than their building blocks did, and how competition among these vesicles could have led to longer polymers with complex functions.
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Registered trials
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