Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biology and the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2010 Sep;2(9):a002212. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a002212. Epub 2010 May 19.
Understanding the origin of cellular life on Earth requires the discovery of plausible pathways for the transition from complex prebiotic chemistry to simple biology, defined as the emergence of chemical assemblies capable of Darwinian evolution. We have proposed that a simple primitive cell, or protocell, would consist of two key components: a protocell membrane that defines a spatially localized compartment, and an informational polymer that allows for the replication and inheritance of functional information. Recent studies of vesicles composed of fatty-acid membranes have shed considerable light on pathways for protocell growth and division, as well as means by which protocells could take up nutrients from their environment. Additional work with genetic polymers has provided insight into the potential for chemical genome replication and compatibility with membrane encapsulation. The integration of a dynamic fatty-acid compartment with robust, generalized genetic polymer replication would yield a laboratory model of a protocell with the potential for classical Darwinian biological evolution, and may help to evaluate potential pathways for the emergence of life on the early Earth. Here we discuss efforts to devise such an integrated protocell model.
理解地球上细胞生命的起源需要发现从复杂的前生物化学到简单生物学的过渡的合理途径，简单生物学被定义为能够进行达尔文进化的化学组装体的出现。我们提出，一个简单的原始细胞或原细胞，将由两个关键组件组成：一个定义空间局部隔室的原细胞膜，和一个允许功能信息复制和遗传的信息聚合物。最近对由脂肪酸膜组成的囊泡的研究揭示了原细胞生长和分裂的途径，以及原细胞从其环境中吸收营养的方法。使用遗传聚合物的额外工作提供了对化学基因组复制的潜力以及与膜封装的兼容性的深入了解。动态脂肪酸隔室与强大的、通用的遗传聚合物复制的集成将产生具有经典达尔文生物进化潜力的原细胞实验室模型，并可能有助于评估早期地球上生命出现的潜在途径。在这里，我们讨论了设计这种集成原细胞模型的努力。
