The eco-evolutionary origins of life

The origin of life remains one of the greatest enigmas in science. The immense leap in complexity between prebiotic soup and cellular life challenges historically "chemistry-forward" and "biology-backwards" approaches. Evolution must have bridged this gap in complexity, so unders...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolution 2024-01, Vol.78 (1), p.1-12
Main Authors: Kalambokidis, Maria, Travisano, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The origin of life remains one of the greatest enigmas in science. The immense leap in complexity between prebiotic soup and cellular life challenges historically "chemistry-forward" and "biology-backwards" approaches. Evolution must have bridged this gap in complexity, so understanding factors that influence evolutionary outcomes is critical for exploring life's emergence. Here, we review insights from ecology and evolution and their application throughout abiogenesis. In particular, we discuss how ecological and evolutionary constraints shape the evolution of biological innovation. We propose an "eco-evolutionary" approach, which is agnostic towards particular chemistries or environments and instead explores the several ways that an evolvable system may emerge and gain complexity.
ISSN:0014-3820
1558-5646
DOI:10.1093/evolut/qpad195