Influence of Abiotic Factors in the Chemical Origin of Life: Biomorphs as a Study Model.

Since the formation of the Earth, minerals have been the key to understanding how life originated. It is suggested that life arose from minerals; they are considered to favor the formation and replication of biomolecules. In conjunction with minerals, the abiotic factors of the Precambrian era enabled the origin, development, and maintenance of life. To explain and understand the chemical origin of life, theories have been postulated for decades, and some of them have gone from mere postulates to evidence that have contributed to science in this direction. Several research groups have developed study models elucidating which could have been the first forms of life; in this sense, calcium, barium, or strontium silica carbonates have been synthesized in vitro to emulate morphologies of organisms. Aimed at understanding better the influence of abiotic factors in the formation of different chemical structures, the importance of the different types of physical and chemical abiotic factors in the origin of life are reviewed, as well as their influence on the morphology of biomorphs.