Institut Cavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva, Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Universitat de València, C. Jose Beltran 2, 46980 Paterna, Spain.
Chem Soc Rev. 2012 Aug 21;41(16):5394-403. doi: 10.1039/c2cs35054h. Epub 2012 Apr 16.
The origin of life on Earth was a chemical affair. So how did primitive biochemical systems originate from geochemical and cosmochemical processes on the young planet? Contemporary research into the origins of life subscribes to the Darwinian principle of material causes operating in an evolutionary context, as advocated by A. I. Oparin and J. B. S. Haldane in the 1920s. In its simplest form (e.g., a bacterial cell) extant biological complexity relies on the functional integration of metabolic networks and replicative genomes inside a lipid boundary. Different research programmes have explored the prebiotic plausibility of each of these autocatalytic subsystems and combinations thereof: self-maintained networks of small molecules, template chemistry, and self-reproductive vesicles. This tutorial review focuses on the debates surrounding the origin of metabolism and offers a brief overview of current studies on the evolution of metabolic networks. I suggest that a leitmotif in the origin and evolution of metabolism is the role played by catalysers' substrate ambiguity and multifunctionality.
地球上生命的起源是一个化学事件。那么，原始的生化系统是如何从年轻行星上的地球化学和宇宙化学过程中起源的呢？当代对生命起源的研究遵循了 20 世纪初 A.I.奥巴林和 J.B.S.霍尔丹所倡导的达尔文主义物质因果原则，即在进化背景下运作。在最简单的形式（例如，一个细菌细胞）中，现存的生物复杂性依赖于代谢网络和复制基因组在脂质边界内的功能整合。不同的研究计划探索了这些自催化子系统及其组合在原始条件下的可能性：小分子的自我维持网络、模板化学和自我繁殖的囊泡。本教程综述重点关注代谢起源的争论，并简要概述代谢网络进化的当前研究。我认为，代谢起源和进化的一个主题是催化剂底物模糊性和多功能性所起的作用。
