From Cytoplasm to Environment: The Inorganic Ingredients for the Origin of Life

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Early in its history, Earth's surface developed from an uninhabitable magma ocean to a place where life could emerge. The first organisms, lacking ion transporters, fixed the composition of their cradle environment in their intracellular fluid. Later, though life adapted and spread, it preserved some qualities of its initial environment within. Modern prokaryotes could thus provide insights into the conditions of early Earth and the requirements for the emergence of life. In this work, we constrain Earth's life-forming environment through detailed analysis of prokaryotic intracellular fluid. Rigorous assessment of the constraints placed on the early Earth environment by intracellular liquid will provide insight into the conditions of abiogenesis, with implications not only for our understanding of early Earth but also the formation of life elsewhere in the Universe.o TEXTO COMPLETO DESTE ARTIGO, ESTARÁ DISPONÍVEL À PARTIR DE AGOSTO DE 2015.133294302Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Universidade de Sao PauloFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP