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Abstract Cycles of dehydration and rehydration could have enabled formation of peptides and RNA in otherwise unfavorable conditions on the early Earth. Development of the first protocells would have hinged upon colocalization of these biopolymers with fatty acid membranes. Using atomic force microscopy, we find that a prebiotic fatty acid (decanoic acid) forms stacks of membranes after dehydration. Using LC‐MS‐MS (liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry) with isotope internal standards, we measure the rate of formation of serine dipeptides. We find that dipeptides form during dehydration at moderate temperatures (55 °C) at least as fast in the presence of decanoic acid membranes as in the absence of membranes. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that protocells could have formed within evaporating environments on the early Earth.
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Semipermeable Mixed Phospholipid-Fatty Acid Membranes Exhibit K+/Na+ Selectivity in the Absence of Proteins
Two important ions, K+ and Na+, are unequally distributed across the contemporary phospholipid-based cell membrane because modern cells evolved a series of sophisticated protein channels and pumps to maintain ion gradients. The earliest life-like entities or protocells did not possess either ion-tight membranes or ion pumps, which would result in the equilibration of the intra-protocellular K+/Na+ ratio with that in the external environment. Here, we show that the most primitive protocell membranes composed of fatty acids, that were initially leaky, would eventually become less ion permeable as their membranes evolved towards having increasing phospholipid contents. Furthermore, these mixed fatty acid-phospholipid membranes selectively retain K+ but allow the passage of Na+ out of the cell. The K+/Na+ selectivity of these mixed fatty acid-phospholipid semipermeable membranes suggests that protocells at intermediate stages of evolution could have acquired electrochemical K+/Na+ ion gradients in the absence of any macromolecular transport machinery or pumps, thus potentially facilitating rudimentary protometabolism.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1829695
- PAR ID:
- 10442358
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Life
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2075-1729
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 39
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/life10040039
