Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
News and Views
Nature 454, 37-38 (3 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/454037a; Published online 2 July 2008
Open Innovation Challenges
-
Fast Growth of Transformed Soybean Shoots
A method for accelerating growth of soybean shoots is desired.
-
Efficient Chromosome Doubling: Plant Cell Division
The Seeker is looking for an efficient chromosome doubling method in plants and in particular, metho...
- More Challenges
- Powered by:
nature jobs
Postdoctoral Position in Immunology
- Northwestern University
- Chicago, Illinois
Bioresearch Manager
- Philip Morris International (PMI)
- Singapore
Origins of life: How leaky were primitive cells?
David W. Deamer1
Abstract
If the first cells were simple vesicles, how did nutrients cross their membranes without help from transport proteins? A model of a primitive cell suggests that early membranes were surprisingly permeable.
How life began remains an open question. There are now a dozen or more competing ideas that fall into two general categories: life began either as an autotrophic organism that used primitive metabolic pathways to make its own organic components, or as a heterotroph that incorporated carbon-containing nutrients already available in the environment.
- David W. Deamer is in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA.
Email: deamer@soe.ucsc.edu
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
RESEARCH
Template-directed synthesis of a genetic polymer in a model protocellNature Letters to Editor (03 Jul 2008)
Boundary structures are formed by organic components of the Murchison carbonaceous chondriteNature Letters to Editor (31 Oct 1985)
