Department of Biomolecular Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Department of Biomolecular Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Prog Lipid Res. 2023 Nov;92:101253. doi: 10.1016/j.plipres.2023.101253. Epub 2023 Sep 1.
The unique biophysical and biochemical properties of lipids render them crucial in most models of the origin of life (OoL). Many studies have attempted to delineate the prebiotic pathways by which lipids were formed, how micelles and vesicles were generated, and how these micelles and vesicles became selectively permeable towards the chemical precursors required to initiate and support biochemistry and inheritance. Our analysis of a number of such studies highlights the extremely narrow and limited range of conditions by which an experiment is considered to have successfully modeled a role for lipids in an OoL experiment. This is in line with a recent proposal that bias is introduced into OoL studies by the extent and the kind of human intervention. It is self-evident that OoL studies can only be performed by human intervention, and we now discuss the possibility that some assumptions and simplifications inherent in such experimental approaches do not permit determination of mechanistic insight into the roles of lipids in the OoL. With these limitations in mind, we suggest that more nuanced experimental approaches than those currently pursued may be required to elucidate the generation and function of lipids, micelles and vesicles in the OoL.
脂质独特的物理化学性质使得它们在生命起源（OoL）的大多数模型中至关重要。许多研究试图描述脂质形成的前生物途径、胶束和囊泡是如何产生的，以及这些胶束和囊泡如何对启动和支持生物化学和遗传所需的化学前体具有选择性渗透性。我们对许多此类研究进行了分析，突出了实验被认为成功模拟了脂质在 OoL 实验中的作用的条件极其狭窄和有限。这与最近的一项提议一致，即偏见通过人类干预的程度和类型引入到 OoL 研究中。不言而喻，OoL 研究只能通过人类干预来进行，我们现在讨论了这样一种可能性，即这些实验方法中固有的一些假设和简化使得无法确定脂质在 OoL 中的作用的机械洞察力。考虑到这些限制，我们建议可能需要比目前所采用的更细致的实验方法来阐明脂质、胶束和囊泡在 OoL 中的生成和功能。
