Origin of life. II. From prebiotic replicators to protocells.
Primitive microvesicles (coacervates, microspheres, marigranules, etc.), free-born in aqueous media, are only protometabolic proteinoids surrounded by an amphiphilic protomembrane. In contrast, surface-born microvesicles could be initiated in the pores of watered rocks providing primary boundaries coated by amphiphilic compounds and acting as sinks for primitive peptides and their coding nucleobases N-P anchored on polyphosphates. Only presumed replication of these prenucleic infopolymers would qualify the basipetally budded microvesicles as protocells.
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Laboratoire de Microbiologie et de Bioenergetique, Geneve.
D002462:Cell Membrane; D004247:DNA; D019418:Evolution, Chemical; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D000069497:Origin of Life; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012313:RNA
D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D011108:Polymers; D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA