Question 7: the first units of life were not simple cells.
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.
Norris
Vic
V
AMMIS Laboratory, UMR CNRS 6522, University of Rouen, Mont Saint Aignan, 76821, France. victor.norris@univ-rouen.fr
Hunding
Axel
A
Kepes
Francois
F
Lancet
Doron
D
Minsky
Abraham
A
Raine
Derek
D
Root-Bernstein
Robert
R
Sriram
K
K
D001419:Bacteria; D008954:Models, Biological