Two origins of life: Free-living cells may have emerged twice as bacteria and archaea diverged
Researchers at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf have found evidence suggesting that life may have emerged twice as bacteria and archaea diverged. The study analyzed genomes and chemical reactions to trace the origins of early enzymes.
Why it matters
This research provides a new framework for understanding the fundamental origins of life and the evolution of early microbial metabolism.
edited by Sadie Harley , reviewed by Robert Egan
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Add as preferred source Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain How and where did the first forms of life arise? These are the main questions driving research at the Institute of Molecular Evolution at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU). In a new publication in Science Advances , an international team led by Düsseldorf biologists uncovers pioneering insights into the network of chemical reactions that the very first cells used to make the building blocks of life and the energy sources they used to drive those reactions.
They retraced the origin of enzymes during life's earliest divergence into bacteria and archaea and found evidence for two independent origins of life for free-living cells.
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