Abiogenesis, the idea that life arose from nonlife more than 3.

5 billion
years ago on Earth. Abiogenesis proposes that the first life-forms
generated were very simple and through a gradual process became
increasingly complex. Biogenesis, in which life is derived from the
reproduction of other life, was presumably preceded by abiogenesis,
which became impossible once Earth’s atmosphere assumed its present
composition.
Although many equate abiogenesis with the archaic theory of
spontaneous generation, the two ideas are quite different. According to
the latter, complex life (e.g., a maggot or mouse) was thought to arise
spontaneously and continually from nonliving matter. While the
hypothetical process of spontaneous generation was disproved as early
as the 17th century and decisively rejected in the 19th century,
abiogenesis has been neither proved nor disproved.
The Oparin-Haldane theory
- Aleksandr Oparin, 1970.
In the 1920s British scientist J.B.S. Haldane and
Russian biochemist Aleksandr
Oparin independently set forth similar ideas
concerning the conditions required for the origin
of life on Earth. Both believed that organic
molecules could be formed from abiogenic materials in the
presence of an external energy source (e.g., ultraviolet radiation)
and that the primitive atmosphere was reducing (having very low
amounts of free oxygen) and
contained ammonia and water vapour, among other gases. Both
also suspected that the first life-forms appeared in the warm,
primitive ocean and were heterotrophic (obtaining preformed
nutrients from the compounds in existence on early Earth) rather
than autotrophic (generating food and nutrients from sunlight or
inorganic materials).
- Oparin believed that life developed from coacervates,
microscopic spontaneously formed
spherical aggregates of lipid molecules that are held together by
electrostatic forces and that may have been precursors of cells.
Oparin’s work with coacervates confirmed
that enzymes fundamental for the biochemical reactions
of metabolism functioned more efficiently when contained within
membrane-bound spheres than when free in aqueous solutions.
Haldane, unfamiliar with Oparin’s coacervates, believed that
simple organic molecules formed first and in the presence of
ultraviolet light became increasingly complex, ultimately forming
cells. Haldane and Oparin’s ideas formed the foundation for much
of the research on abiogenesis that took place in later decades.

*The Miller-Urey experiment

In 1953 American chemists Harold C. Urey and Stanley Miller tested the Oparin-
Haldane theory and successfully produced organic molecules from some of the
inorganic components thought to have been present on prebiotic Earth. In what
became known as the Miller-Urey experiment, the two scientists combined warm
water with a mixture of four gases—water vapour, methane, ammonia, and
molecular hydrogen—and pulsed the “atmosphere” with electrical discharges. The
different components were meant to simulate the primitive ocean, the prebiotic
atmosphere, and heat (in the form of lightning), respectively. One week later Miller
and Urey found that simple organic molecules, including amino acids (the building
blocks of proteins), had formed under the simulated conditions of early Earth.
Modern conceptions of abiogenesis
Modern abiogenesis hypotheses are based largely on the same principles as the
Oparin-Haldane theory and the Miller-Urey experiment. There are, however, subtle
differences between the several models that have been set forth to explain the
progression from abiogenic molecule to living organism, and explanations differ as
to whether complex organic molecules first became self-replicating entities lacking
metabolic functions or first became metabolizing protocells that then developed the
ability to self-replicate.
The habitat for abiogenesis has also been debated. While some evidence suggests
that life may have originated from nonlife in hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor,
it is possible that abiogenesis occurred elsewhere, such as deep below Earth’s
surface, where newly arisen protocells could have subsisted on methane or
hydrogen, or even on ocean shores, where proteinoids may have emerged from the
reaction of amino acids with heat and then entered the water as cell-like protein
droplets.
Some scientists have proposed that abiogenesis occurred more than once. In one
example of this hypothetical scenario, different types of life arose, each with
distinct biochemical architectures reflecting the nature of the abiogenic materials
from which they developed. Ultimately, however, phosphate-based life (“standard”
life, having a biochemical architecture requiring phosphorus) gained an
evolutionary advantage over all non-phosphate-based life (“nonstandard” life) and
thereby became the most widely distributed type of life on Earth. This notion led
scientists to infer the existence of a shadow biosphere, a life-supporting system
consisting of microorganisms of unique or unusual biochemical structure that may
have once existed, or possibly still exists, on Earth.
As the Miller-Urey experiment demonstrated, organic molecules can form from
abiogenic materials under the constraints of Earth’s prebiotic atmosphere. Since the
1950s, researchers have found that amino acids can spontaneously form peptides
(small proteins) and that key intermediates in the synthesis of RNA nucleotides
(nitrogen-containing compounds [bases] linked to sugar and phosphate groups) can
form from prebiotic starting materials. The latter evidence may support the RNA
world hypothesis, the idea that on early Earth there existed an abundance of RNA
life produced through prebiotic chemical reactions. In fact, in addition to carrying
and translating genetic information, RNA is a catalyst, a molecule that increases the
rate of a reaction without itself being consumed, meaning that a single RNA
catalyst could have produced multiple living forms, which would have been
advantageous during the rise of life on Earth. The RNA world hypothesis is one of
the leading self-replication-first conceptions of abiogenesis.
Some modern metabolism-based models of abiogenesis incorporate Oparin’s
enzyme-containing coacervates but suggest a steady progression from simple
organic molecules to coacervates, specifically protobionts, aggregates of organic
molecules that display some characteristics of life. Protobionts presumably then
gave rise to prokaryotes, single-celled organisms lacking a distinct nucleus and
other organelles because of the absence of internal membranes but capable of
metabolism and self-replication and susceptible to natural selection. Examples of
primitive prokaryotes still found on Earth today include archaea, which often
inhabit extreme environments with conditions similar to those that may have existed
billions of years ago, and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which also flourish in
inhospitable environments and are of particular interest in understanding the origin
of life, given their photosynthetic abilities. Stromatolites, deposits formed by the
growth of blue-green algae, are the world’s oldest fossils, dating to 3.5 billion years
ago.
There remain many unanswered questions concerning abiogenesis. Experiments
have yet to demonstrate the complete transition of inorganic materials to structures
like protobionts and protocells and, in the case of the proposed RNA world, have
yet to reconcile important differences in mechanisms in the synthesis of purine and
pyrimidine bases necessary to form complete RNA nucleotides. In addition, some
scientists contend that abiogenesis was unnecessary, suggesting instead that life was
introduced on Earth via collision with an extraterrestrial object harbouring living
organisms, such as a meteorite carrying single-celled organisms; the hypothetical
migration of life to Earth is known as panspermia.
Research on abiogenesis has benefited significantly from astrobiology, the field of
study concerned with the search for extraterrestrial life (life beyond Earth) and with
understanding the conditions required for life to form. Astrobiological
investigations of the moon Titan, for example, which has an atmosphere lacking
free oxygen, have revealed that complex organic molecules are present there,
offering scientists a glimpse into the formation of biological materials in a prebiotic
habitat resembling that of early Earth.