Origins and Evolution of Life

This paper introduces a simulation platform to model how regulation and agency emerge in protocell ecologies under prebiotic conditions.

This paper characterizes mixed single chain amphiphile-based coacervates as protocell systems, showing RNA sequestration and nonenzymatic template-directed primer extension.

This study investigates how nighttime and daytime UV exposure affects liposome evolution, showing that negative buoyancy and ferric salts protect liposomes from UV damage, supporting a Darwinian evolution model for early life.

The paper uses probabilistic generative models to estimate the number of self-reproducing RNAs and finds that at least 10^39 such ribozymes may exist.

The paper evaluates macroscale and microscale metrics to distinguish biotic from abiotic chemical reaction networks and proposes an agnostic toolset for life detection.

This study investigates how coacervates resist changes in molecular composition under varying salinity and pH, showing they can buffer molecules like RNA and maintain internal stability.

This paper presents a niche construction-based theory of evolution without reproduction, arguing for inorganic catalysts as units of selection in prebiotic chemical evolution.

The paper investigates how NADH production affects the phase behavior of polyarginine in bicarbonate buffer, showing that it can tune material properties between precipitates, homogeneous solution, and liquid droplets.

This study shows prebiotic isocyanide chemistry activates RNA building blocks, enabling both nonenzymatic and ribozyme-catalyzed RNA ligation, supporting a unified model for RNA assembly on early Earth.

This study demonstrates that an isothermal prebiotic gas flow environment enables exponential DNA replication by concentrating nucleic acids and reducing salt concentration.

This study demonstrates non-enzymatic glucose synthesis from pyruvate in aqueous microdroplets, mimicking gluconeogenesis without catalysts or external energy.

This study investigates how peptides interact with mineral surfaces and lipid vesicles, showing acidic residues bind minerals and arginine enhances phosphate mobilization, while different amino acid alphabets affect vesicle stability.

The paper uses computer modeling of RNA-based protocells to explore how membrane-takeover could have driven early evolutionary processes by promoting phospholipid synthesis and related functional RNA species.

This study develops a computational model of cooperative replicating polymer systems to explore how prebiotic environments with micro-compartments enable the persistence of cooperating polymers.

This study shows that aminoacyl-RNA loop-closing ligation is stereoselective, favoring L-amino acids over D-amino acids, and suggests this process could have contributed to the emergence of homochirality in amino acids.

This paper investigates a primordial genetic alphabet using 2-thiouridine (s2U), 2-thiocytidine (s2C), inosine (I), and adenine (A), showing that their base pairs are isoenergetic and isomorphic, enabling balanced nucleotide incorporation in nonenzymatic RNA copying.

The paper shows hybrid membranes select for D-ribose, deoxyribose, and specific L-amino acids, suggesting membrane permeability influenced life's stereochemistry.

This study demonstrates the de novo formation of lipid bilayers from primitive metabolites without preexisting membranes or templates.

The paper describes the discovery of novel microscopic structures in a rock sample, suggests a non-terrestrial origin, and proposes a new taxonomic classification.

This paper studies the computational detection of minimal autocatalytic cycles in reaction networks and evaluates how thermodynamic constraints affect their compatibility and realizability.

The paper shows that phospholipid composition in icy environments influences vesicle growth and leads to selective enrichment of genetic material.

This study describes an autocatalytic assembly pathway that generates a chimeric aminoacyl-RNA synthetase ribozyme capable of self-sustaining and assembling other ribozymes.

This study demonstrates spatio-temporal oscillations in synthetic cells through a size control mechanism that converts chemical fuel into waste, sustaining oscillations for hundreds of periods.

This paper demonstrates self-growing artificial cell models using dextran-rich droplets in an aqueous two-phase system, coupled with DNA replication and transcription-translation systems.

This study shows heat flows solubilize apatite, increasing phosphate availability for prebiotic chemistry by up-concentrating and boosting its solubility.

This study identifies novel single-stranded DNA sequences in meteorite-derived cultures, suggesting potential roles in autoreplication and extremophilic adaptations.

This paper engineers synthetic cells capable of DNA self-replication, transcription-translation, and membrane synthesis, showing genetic factors dominate over metabolic interactions in module integration.

The paper develops a biomathematical enzyme kinetics model of prebiotic autocatalytic RNA networks, showing that hyperparasites confer parasite resistance and explain the origin of molecular immunity.

The paper infers the order of amino acid recruitment into the genetic code by analyzing ancestral protein domain frequencies, finding smaller amino acids were added earlier and metal-binding/sulfur-containing amino acids earlier than previously thought.

The paper demonstrates sustainable replication and Darwinian evolution of a DNA self-replicator in liposome compartments using a cell-free protein synthesis system.