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Origins of life

How leaky were primitive cells?

Nature volume 454, pages 37–38 (2008)Cite this article

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. On page 122 of this issue, Mansy et al.1 weigh in with a laboratory simulation that supports a heterotrophic origin of life — a cell-like vesicle that allows small, organic 'nutrient' molecules to pass through its membrane.

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Figure 1: Lipid self-assembly.

A. NORTH, ROCKEFELLER UNIV.

References

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  1. David W. Deamer is in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA. deamer@soe.ucsc.edu,

    David W. Deamer

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  1. David W. Deamer
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Deamer, D. How leaky were primitive cells?. Nature 454, 37–38 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454037a

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