Joel Kontinen
Lakes that thrived in dry locations on early Earth likely played a key role in supplying phosphorus, researchers wrote in a new study published Dec. 30 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Phosphorus is crucial to life, Without it we not have it.
Phosphorus is crucial to life as we know it. The mineral helps form the backbone of DNA and RNA molecules; anchors lipids, or fats, that separate cells from the environment around them; and helps provide life energy, serving as the main component in molecules such as adenosine triphosphate, or ATP.
The finding explains how this scarce mineral became abundant in Earth's primordial soup. Put more plainly, it helps scientists understand how life likely arose. "For 50 years, what's called 'the phosphate problem,' has plagued studies on the origin of life," study co-researcher Jonathan Tone , a research assistant professor of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, said in a statement.
The building blocks of proteins, DNA and RNA — in essence, the key ingredients of life, the researchers said.
As a result, some of the phosphate is freely available in the water, according to experiments done by Toner and Catling.
"The extremely high phosphate levels in these lakes and ponds would have driven reactions that put phosphorus into the molecular building blocks of RNA, proteins and fats, all of which were needed to get life going," Catling said in the statement.
About 4 billion years ago , early Earth's carbon dioxide-rich air would have helped create such lakes with high phosphorus levels, the researchers said.
Now,who made this transition?
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This study complements another paper the two researchers published in 2019, which shows that soda lakes can also supply ample cyanide, a chemical that is deadly to humans but not to primitive microbes. Cyanide could have supported the formation of amino acids and nucleotides, the building blocks of proteins, DNA and RNA — in essence, the key ingredients of life, the researchers said.
Source.
Geggel, Laura. 2020. Early 'Soda Lakes' May Have Provided Missing Ingredient Key to the Origin of Life Live Science 2 January.
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