title: Question 7: the first units of life were not simple cells.
abstract: Five common assumptions about the first cells are challenged by the pre-biotic ecology model and are replaced by the following propositions: firstly, early cells were more complex, more varied and had a greater diversity of constituents than modern cells; secondly, the complexity of a cell is not related to the number of genes it contains, indeed, modern bacteria are as complex as eukaryotes; thirdly, the unit of early life was an 'ecosystem' rather than a 'cell'; fourthly, the early cell needed no genes at all; fifthly, early life depended on non-covalent associations and on catalysts that were not confined to specific reactions. We present here the outlines of a theory that connects findings about modern bacteria with speculations about their origins.
authors.affiliation: AMMIS Laboratory, UMR CNRS 6522, University of Rouen, Mont Saint Aignan, 76821, France. victor.norris@univ-rouen.fr
authors.forename: Vic
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Norris
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hunding
authors.forename: Francois
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kepes
authors.forename: Doron
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lancet
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Minsky
authors.forename: Derek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raine
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Root-Bernstein
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sriram
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria; D008954:Models, Biological