TITLE:  From Proteins to Protolife
      AUTHOR:  LIPKIN, RICHARD
     JOURNAL:  Science News
    CITATION:  July 23, 1994, 146: 58-59.
        YEAR:  1994
    PUB TYPE:  Article
 IDENTIFIERS:  ORIGIN OF LIFE; PROTOCELLS; THERMAL PROTEINS; MICROSPHERES; 
               AMINO ACIDS; PROTEINS; EVOLUTION/ORIGIN; PRIMORDIAL LIFE
    ABSTRACT:       The theory that life evolved from lower unicellular 
               organisms to more complex ones is a plausible premise in 
               science. Continuing advances in biochemistry and chemistry 
               show that organisms are chemical machines driven by their 
               molecular makeup. Following this premise further, living 
               cells developed from nonliving molecules, and the origin of 
               life may not be as random as many assumed. Scientists at the 
               University of Chicago more than 40 yr. ago showed that amino 
               acids can form from complex molecules in primordial 
               conditions of heating, cooling, and electrification. Other 
               scientists went on to show that amino acids can form into 
               simple proteins under primordial conditions. Proteins are the 
               core structure of living cells. The proteins can go on to 
               produce small, cell-like objects called microspheres.
                    Microspheres do not have the internal structure that run 
               living cells. They do, however, bear a resemblance to 
               microfossils of Precambrian rocks. Microspheres also join 
               together and electrically signal to each other when 
               stimulated by light. Scientists struggle with the question 
               whether or not they played a role in the development of life. 
               Sidney W. Fox, one of the pioneer scientists in this area, 
               believes they did play a part. He believes that these thermal 
               proteins assembled into microspheres and then protocells, 
               leading to the evolution of nucleic acids.
                    The idea challenges conventional thinking that nucleic 
               acids needed to exist before the arrival of any form of 
               living cell. Thermal proteins compose the protocell membrane 
               that acts in many ways like a living cell membrane. Thermal 
               proteins may have been the first step in evolution. The cell-
               like structures could be the forebears of organisms like 
               bacteria, archaea, and eucharya. If the theory proves correct 
               and life evolved from a highly determined chemical sequence, 
               life is likely to occur elsewhere in the universe.