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Hypotheses on the role of the free enthalpy in origin of life and biological evolution
Gérard Berger
Abstract
A model is proposed to account for the origin of life and evolution of living organisms, based on the necessary decrease of the free enthalpy of the biosphere. This would be possible by the role of the enzymes which activate the biological reactions. We hypothesize that their active sites have been produced not by chance and natural selection but by condensation of aminoacids in the presence of substrates. The information would have been transferred to nucleic acids by the reverse protein synthesis mechanism. A lot of genes of enzymes would have been distributed between different species of monocellular organisms.
Some of them would have aggregated into colonies, including eventually species of complementary metabolisms. As different kinds of reactions might have occurred at the same time, a more rapid decrease of the free enthalpy received from outside would have resulted, promoting the phenomenon of aggregation.
As the places and the numbers of the different cells of the living organisms are maintained by reproduction, a strict mechanism must exist. We hypothesize that short repeated sequences present in the genome would have played this role.
After reunions into colonies in the early times of evolution, only punctual mutations and modifications of repartition of genomes, but no new activities, would have occurred.
The different theories of origin of life and evolution are discussed, with respect to our model.
Keywords
Free enthalpy, Gibbs free energy, cell colonies, repeated sequences, genome
Contact : gerardberger94@gmail.com