Primordial soup that spawned life 4 billion years ago is STILL in our cells, scientists claim
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Parts of the primordial soup in which life arose have been maintained in our cells today according to scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA).
Research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry reveals how cells in plants, yeast and very likely also in animals still perform ancient reactions.
These were thought to have been responsible for the origin of life some 4 billion years ago.
Scientists at the University of East Anglia say our cells have an ancient ability to perform reactions similar to the origin of life 4 billion years ago (illustrated). The primordial soup theory suggests life began in a pond or ocean. Mitochondria (illustrated) continue to perform similar actions today
EVOLUTION OF LIFE'S 'OPERATING SYSTEM' REVEALED
Every living thing on Earth depends on a mysterious tangle of molecules called ribosomes.
These are the cell's protein factories, translating the genetic information in DNA into an amino acid sequence to create proteins.
Scientists believe that the ribosome - whose history is difficult to track - holds clues to how the first molecules of life came together around four billion years ago.
Now researchers are a step closer to uncovering these clues after modelling the evolution of these biological factories in unprecedented detail.
The core of the ribosome is essentially the same in all living systems, while the outer regions expand and become complicated as species gain complexity.
By digitally peeling back the layers of modern ribosomes, scientists at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta were able to model the structures of the very first of these biological factories.
'The history of the ribosome tells us about the origin of life,' said Loren Williams, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The study compared three-dimensional structures of ribosomes from a variety of species of varying biological complexity, including humans, yeast, bacteria and archaea.
The researchers found distinct fingerprints in the ribosomes where new structures were added to the ribosomal surface without altering the core.
The research team then worked the process backwards in time to generate models of simple, primordial ribosomes.
The primordial soup theory suggests that life began in a pond or ocean as a result of the combination of metals, gases from the atmosphere and some form of energy, such as a lightning strike, to make the building blocks of proteins which would then evolve into all species.
The new research shows how small pockets of a cell - known as mitochondria - continue to perform similar reactions in our bodies today.
These reactions involve iron, sulfur and electro-chemistry and are still important for functions such as respiration in animals and photosynthesis in plants.
'Cells confine certain bits of dangerous chemistry to specific compartments of the cell,' said Lead researcher Dr Janneke Balk, from the UEA's school of Biological Sciences and the John Innes Centre (JIC).
'For example small pockets of a cell called mitochondria deal with electrochemistry and also with toxic sulfur metabolism.
'These are very ancient reactions thought to have been important for the origin of life.
'Our research has shown that a toxic sulfur compound is being exported by a mitochondrial transport protein to other parts of the cell.
'We need sulfur for making iron-sulfur catalysts, again a very ancient chemical process.
'The work shows that parts of the primordial soup in which life arose has been maintained in our cells today, and is in fact harnessed to maintain important biological reactions.'
The research was carried out at UEA and JIC in collaboration with Dr Hendrik van Veen at the University of Cambridge.
It was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
This image from the researchers shows a normal plant (left) and a plant that cannot export sulfur from the mitochondria anymore (right, looking very small and yellow), while at the same time an ancient enzyme required to detoxify sulfur inside mitochondria is also inactivated, suggesting the cells retain an ancient ability
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