Scientists reveal how the first cells on Earth could have formed

The protocell like structure (Picture: Scripps research)

We’re one step closer to finding out how life first developed on Earth.

Scientists widely believe that life was formed in a hot spring but were unsure how cells became more complex to help evolve into life as we know it today.

Now, a study has revealed how collections of fats formed the membranes of the very first cells.

Researchers from The Scripps Research Institute in California said a chemical process known as phosphorylation happened a lot earlier than we first thought.

Phosphorylation is a process where groups of atoms that include phosphorus are added to a molecule. This helps turn fats, known as protocells, into more evolved versions of themselves, so they can become more versatile, stable, and chemically active.

These protocells are thought to be the building blocks of basic biochemistry over 3.5 billion years ago.

‘At some point, we all wonder where we came from,’ said Dr Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, from The Scripps Research Institute.

‘This finding helps us better understand the chemical environments of early Earth so we can uncover the origins of life and how life can evolve on early Earth.’

Life is thought to have begun in a hot spring (Picture: Getty)

The researchers thought that since phosphorylation is so common throughout the body, the process must have been involved in the early stages of protocell formation.

The team recreated conditions similar to Earth’s early days in a lab, and combined chemicals such as fatty acids and glycerol in a way to create structures similar to protocells – and they found that phosphorylation may have been in the protocells during that period.

‘The vesicles were able to transition from a fatty acid environment to a phospholipid environment during our experiments, suggesting a similar chemical environment could have existed four billion years ago,’ said Dr Sunil Pulletikurti.

Co-author Dr Ashok Deniz said: ‘We’ve discovered one plausible pathway for how phospholipids could have emerged during this chemical evolutionary process.

It’s exciting to uncover how early chemistries may have transitioned to allow for life on Earth. Our findings also hint at a wealth of intriguing physics that may have played key functional roles along the way to modern cells.’

The research has been published in Chem.

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