title: From pre-cells to Eukarya--a tale of two lipids.
abstract: A mechanistic hypothesis for the origin of the three domains of life is proposed. A population of evolving pre-cells is suggested to have had a membrane of a racemate of chiral lipids that continuously underwent spontaneous symmetry breaking by spatial phase segregation into two enantiomerically enriched membrane domains. By frequent pre-cell fusions and fissions these membrane domains became partitioned between two pre-cell subpopulations having predominantly one lipid enantiomer or the other. The origin of the Bacteria and Archaea is explained by divergence of first a population of proto-bacteria and later a population of proto-archaea from the evolving pre-cells, each by the emergence of an enantio-selective lipid biosynthesis within the corresponding pre-cell subtype. The origin of the Eukarya is explained by symbiosis between a population of Bacteria and a subpopulation of pre-cells with a predominance of the bacteria-type lipid enantiomers.
authors.affiliation: info@patent.de
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wächtershäuser
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001105:Archaea / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008563:Membrane Lipids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D013559:Symbiosis
chemical_list: D008563:Membrane Lipids