A Darwinian Origin of Life

Abstract:

It is consensual that human’s descent from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) happened by colossal Darwinian evolution. Yet there is no widely accepted path delineating the equally gigantic emergence of LUCA from an abiotic collection of small organic compounds. There is however a consensus that a milestone on this path was the rise of protocells. It is claimed that these entities “must have been simple enough to self-assemble spontaneously in a chemically rich environment… but sufficiently complex that they were poised to evolve to greater complexity, (whereby) Darwinian evolution would begin in…a compartment where…replication of both the protocell and its encapsulated genetic material would have enabled natural selection...ultimately giving rise to modern cellular life” (Joyce GF and Szostak JW 2018).