Simple fats, amino acids to explain how life began

Life is a process that originated 3.5 billion years ago. It emerged when the basic components of the cells that we know today, in other words, inanimate chemical molecules, gradually joined, merged, assembled themselves and interacted. At a given moment they became alive, or what amounts to the same thing, they turned into autonomous systems. As the years passed they gradually evolved until achieving their current complexity and diversity. A piece of research by the UPV/EHU is working on the start of this trajectory by studying how the chemical molecules assembled themselves so that life could begin.

A section of DNA. Zephyris at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

DNA, RNA, proteins, membranes, sugars, …cells are made up of all kinds of components. In biology, and in the studies dealing with the origin of life specifically, it is very common to focus on one of these molecules and put forward hypotheses on how life originated by analysing the specific mechanisms related to it. "Basically, these studies are looking for the 'molecule of life', in other words, they set out to establish which was the most important molecule in making this milestone happen," said Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo, researcher in the Biophysics Unit and of the UPV/EHU's Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science. However, bearing in mind that "life involves activity among a huge variety of molecules and components, a change of approach has been taking place in recent years and research that takes into account various molecules at the same time is gaining strength," he added.

Besides emerging in favour of this fresh approach, Ruiz-Mirazo's group, in collaboration with the University of Montpellier, through an internship of the UPV/EHU PhD student Sara Murillo-Sánchez, has been able to show that interaction exists between some molecules and others. "Our group has expertise in research into membranes that are created in prebiotic environments, in other words, in the study of the dynamics that fatty acids, the precursors of current lipids, may have had. 

The Montpellier group for its part specialises in the synthesis of the first peptides. So when the knowledge of each group is put together, and when we experimentally blended the fatty acids and the amino acids, we could see that there was a strong synergy between them."

As they were able to see, the catalysis of the reaction took place when the fatty acids formed compartments. As they are in an aqueous medium, and due to the hydrophobic nature of lipids, they tend to join with each other and form closed compartments; in other words, they take on the function of a membrane; "at that time the membranes obviously weren't biological but chemical ones," explained Ruiz-Mirazo. In their experiments they were able to see that the conditions offered by these membranes are favourable for amino acids. "The Montpellier group had the prebiotic reactions of the formation of dipeptides very well characterised, so they were able to see that this reaction took place more efficiently in the presence of fatty acids," he added.

Besides demonstrating the synergy between fatty acids and amino acids, Ruiz-Mirazo believes it is very important to have conducted the study using basic chemical components, in other words, molecular precursors. "Life emerged out of these basic molecules; therefore, to study its origin we cannot start from the complex phospholipids that are found in today's membranes. We have demonstrated the formation of the first coming together and formation of chains on the basis of molecular precursors. Or to put it another way, we have demonstrated that it is possible to achieve diversity and complexity in biology by starting from chemistry."

In his studies, in addition to the experimental work, Ruiz-Mirazo is working in another two spheres so in the end he is studying the origin of life from three pillars or perspectives: "firstly, we have the experimental field; another is based on theoretical models and computational simulations, which we use to analyse the results obtained in the experiments, and the third is a little broader, because we are studying from the philosophical viewpoint what life is, the influence that the conception held about life exerts on the experimental field, since each conception leads you to carry out a specific type of experiment," he explained. "These three methodologies mutually feed each other: an idea that may emerge in the philosophical analysis leads you to carry out a new simulation, and the results of the simulations mark out the path for designing the experiments. Or the other way round. Most likely we will never manage to find the answer to how life began, but we are working on it: all of us living beings on Earth have the same origin and we want to know how it happened."

For more information visit:-

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170112083719.htm

http://www.prlabs.co.uk/lab-supplies.php?N=300l-msia-darts-protein-ag&Id=19593

On this day in science history: chewing gum was patented

In 1869, William Finley Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio, was issued the first U.S. patent for chewing gum (No. 98,304), made of "the combination of rubber with other articles adapted to the formation of an acceptable chewing gum", but he never commercially produced gum. That was done by Thomas Adams of Staten Island, N.Y., who knew that chicle, a natural tree gum, could be chewed. His first experiments to vulcanize chicle for use as a rubber substitute were unsuccessful until he boiled a small batch of chicle in his kitchen and created the first chicle-based chewing gum. Testing sales at a local store, he found people liked his gum. In 1871, Adams patented a gum-producing machine so he could increase production.

Chewing gum stick by Lusheeta, via Wikimedia Commons

Humans have used chewing gum in some form for at least 100,000 years. Modern chewing gum today is made from butadiene-based synthetic rubber. Most chewing gums are considered polymers. Longer polymers can produce larger bubbles due to increased intermolecular forces.

Chewing gum in many forms has existed since the Neolithic period. 6,000-year-old chewing gum made from birch bark tar, with tooth imprints, has been found in Kierikki in Finland. The tar from which the gums were made is believed to have antiseptic properties and other medicinal benefits. It is chemically similar to petroleum tar and is in this way different from most other early gums. The Aztecs, as the ancient Mayans before them, used chicle as a base for making a gum-like substance and to stick objects together in everyday use. Forms of chewing gums were also chewed in Ancient Greece. The Ancient Greeks chewed mastic gum, made from the resin of the mastic tree. Mastic gum, like birch bark tar, has antiseptic properties and is believed to have been used to maintain oral health. Both chicle and mastic are tree resins. Many other cultures have chewed gum-like substances made from plants, grasses, and resins.

The American Indians chewed resin made from the sap of spruce trees. The New England settlers picked up this practice, and in 1848, John B. Curtis developed and sold the first commercial chewing gum called The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum. In this way, the industrializing West, having forgotten about tree gums, rediscovered chewing gum through the First Americans. Around 1850 a gum made from paraffin wax, which is a petroleum product, was developed and soon exceeded the spruce gum in popularity. To sweeten these early gums the chewer would often make use of a plate of powdered sugar, which they would repeatedly dip the gum into to maintain sweetness.

For more information visit:-

http://www.prlabs.co.uk/lab-supplies.php?N=balls-rubber-20mm-&Id=46943

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum

https://todayinsci.com/12/12_28.htm