Close X
Saturday, November 30, 2024
ADVT 
Health

Can you believe it? Metabolism existed even before origin of life, reveales study

Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Apr, 2014 11:34 AM
  • Can you believe it? Metabolism existed even before origin of life, reveales study
The mystery behind how the first organisms on earth could have become metabolically active has been unlocked.
 
Researchers from University of Cambridge have reconstructed ancient ocean to speculate how primitive cells learned to synthesise their organic components - the molecules that form RNA, lipids and amino acids. 
 
Almost four billion years ago, life on earth began in iron-rich oceans that dominated the surface of the planet. 
 
“The conditions and molecules found in the earth's ancient oceans assisted and accelerated the interconversion of metabolites that in modern organisms make up glycolysis and the pentose-phosphate pathways - two of the essential and most centrally placed reaction cascades of metabolism,” explained Markus Ralser from department of biochemistry at University of Cambridge.
 
A reconstruction of earth's earliest ocean in the lab revealed the spontaneous occurrence of the chemical reactions used by modern cells to synthesise many of the crucial organic molecules of metabolism. 
 
Previously, it was assumed that these reactions were carried out in modern cells by metabolic enzymes.
 
“Finding a series of reactions that resembles the `core of cellular metabolism' suggests that metabolism predates the origin of life,” Ralser noted.
 
This implies that, at least initially, metabolism may not have been shaped by evolution but by molecules like RNA formed through the chemical conditions that prevailed in the earliest oceans.
 
According to Ralser, “In the reconstructed version of the ancient Archean ocean, these metabolic reactions were particularly sensitive to the presence of ferrous iron that helped catalyse many of the chemical reactions that we observed”. 
 
The study was published in the journal Molecular Systems Biology.

MORE Health ARTICLES

Bedtime TV affects kids' sleep badly

Bedtime TV affects kids' sleep badly
Kids who watch more television sleep for shorter duration, a study has confirmed.

Bedtime TV affects kids' sleep badly

Ladies! Watch your weight to cut breast cancer risk

Ladies! Watch your weight to cut breast cancer risk
Gear up for some physical exercise sessions as the risk of breast cancer may go up by 210 percent in obese and overweight women with a certain genetic marker, said a study.

Ladies! Watch your weight to cut breast cancer risk

Doctors can now grow engineered vaginas in women

Doctors can now grow engineered vaginas in women
In a major breakthrough, scientists are now growing specialised organs such as vagina in the lab and successfully implanting them in patients. Four teenage girls received such an implant and the organs are working “normally” now, a study has said.

Doctors can now grow engineered vaginas in women

Astronauts' pee to get recycled into clean water

Astronauts' pee to get recycled into clean water
In between the news about water on Mars, clues of life on Jupiter or new stars being formed at our galaxy's edge, there is a less glamorous side of space exploration: what to do with astronauts' urine!

Astronauts' pee to get recycled into clean water

Grow bigger, stronger muscles with green tomatoes

Grow bigger, stronger muscles with green tomatoes
All of us love to eat red tomatoes but as unlikely as it sounds, green tomatoes may hold the answer to bigger, stronger muscles.

Grow bigger, stronger muscles with green tomatoes

Decoded: Who is most satisfied in love life

Decoded: Who is most satisfied in love life
Are you religious or married or enjoy harmonious social ties? You may belong to the pool of people that is most satisfied with love life.

Decoded: Who is most satisfied in love life