Unicamp, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
Astrobiology. 2013 Mar;13(3):294-302. doi: 10.1089/ast.2012.0836. Epub 2013 Feb 13.
Early in its history, Earth's surface developed from an uninhabitable magma ocean to a place where life could emerge. The first organisms, lacking ion transporters, fixed the composition of their cradle environment in their intracellular fluid. Later, though life adapted and spread, it preserved some qualities of its initial environment within. Modern prokaryotes could thus provide insights into the conditions of early Earth and the requirements for the emergence of life. In this work, we constrain Earth's life-forming environment through detailed analysis of prokaryotic intracellular fluid. Rigorous assessment of the constraints placed on the early Earth environment by intracellular liquid will provide insight into the conditions of abiogenesis, with implications not only for our understanding of early Earth but also the formation of life elsewhere in the Universe.
早期的地球表面从一个不宜居住的岩浆海洋发展到了一个可能出现生命的地方。最初的生命缺乏离子转运蛋白，它们将自己细胞内液的组成固定下来，从而形成了自己的摇篮环境。后来，尽管生命适应并传播开来，但它仍然保留了其初始环境的某些特征。现代原核生物因此可以为我们了解早期地球的条件和生命出现的要求提供深入的见解。在这项工作中，我们通过对原核细胞内液的详细分析来限制地球形成生命的环境。对细胞内液体对早期地球环境施加的限制进行严格评估，将有助于我们了解无生源说的条件，这不仅对我们理解早期地球有影响，而且对宇宙中其他地方生命的形成也有影响。
