Prebiotic decluttering: the thermodynamic tail-wind to asymmetric autocatalysis

I outline a general thermodynamic condition for the earliest steps in the origin of life based on fluctuation theorems developed in the last two decades. I argue that the exponentially developing loop of asymmetric autocatalysis and thermodynamic tail-wind condition (TTC) in the prebiotic clutter wa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of astrobiology 2023-02, Vol.22 (1), p.15-32
Main Author: Perović, Slobodan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino acids
Asymmetry
Autocatalysis
Broken symmetry
Catalysis
Clutter
Entropy
Enzymes
Feedback loops
Nucleotides
Origin of life
Phosphates
Physical properties
Polymers
Prebiotics
Symmetry
Thermodynamics
Wind
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Summary:I outline a general thermodynamic condition for the earliest steps in the origin of life based on fluctuation theorems developed in the last two decades. I argue that the exponentially developing loop of asymmetric autocatalysis and thermodynamic tail-wind condition (TTC) in the prebiotic clutter was a key to a particular trajectory of decluttering via a sequence of early symmetry breaking events. Such decluttering was bound to result, most prominently, in homochiral amino acids and homochiral sugars composing nucleotides as the TTC exponentially favoured asymmetric autocatalytic processes over catalytic and symmetric autocatalytic processes in the clutter. I describe the loop's structure, including its chemical and physical properties, and explain that the TTC/asymmetric autocatalysis loop intersected with multiple chemical, geological and climatological feedback loops, thus providing conditions for the propagation of living systems as we know them.
ISSN:1473-5504
1475-3006
DOI:10.1017/S1473550422000295