Autopoietic Gene-Enzyme Cycles and the Emergence of Life

Autopoietic Gene-Enzyme Cycles and the Emergence of Life

Journal Keynote Paper by Paul A. LaViolette. Systems concepts are applied to solve the problem of how early life could have emerged from an initially abiotic organic environment. Proteinoid or lipid microspheres are proposed to have polymerized from a primordial organic soup and to contain various amino acids and several different nucleobases. A self-replicating “basic set” hypercycle consisting of 10 XNA gene strands and 10 enzymes is proposed that utilizes inorganic phosphates as an energy source. More