John Hewitt
Muse
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2006
- Messages
- 924
As some readers may recall, I am interested in developing a general form of evolutionary theory that is data-centred rather than gene-centred. I have christened this form of evolutionary theory "Bioepistemic Evolution." Initially I used this new form of evolutionary theory to give an account of some human biological traits that seemed to depend upon coevolution between social knowledge (rank3 evolving data) and genetic knowledge (rank1 evolving data) – these being human sexuality and then the phenomenon of humour. I made these studies available to readers on my web site Sex and Philosophy.
Later I shifted the focus of my work toward applying bioepistemic evolution to developing a theory for the origin of life. To that end, a few years ago, I presented a poster at an RS meeting to indicate how this form of evolutionary theory could account for the origin of biochemical pathways, that study being entitled "The Theory of Prebiotic Oscillations." Later, I used the same approach to understanding the origin of chiral specificity. These two studies were also I made available on the above web site.
I have continued my interest in the origin of life and am now making my latest study on this topic available to readers. The new study is an extension of the previous work and is entitled "Energy Metabolism and the Evolutionary Origin of Cells." It is not located on "Sex and Philosophy" but on the "Evolution and Origin" web site – which is also my own but uses a more generally appropriate domain name.
The link is "http://www.evolution-origin.co.uk"
on which I expect to locate most of my forthcoming work. The new study can be found under the rank0 B button.
The aim of "Energy Metabolism and the Evolutionary Origin of Cells" is to use bioepistemic evolution to provide a new and chemically plausible account of the origins of several aspects of life.
Specifically,
To describe the chemical nature of the first “protocells,” these being viewed as oil droplets surrounded by a boundary layer of monosaccharides and polysaccharides.
It argues that anaerobic glycolysis first arose on those oil droplets and suggests how and why it became coupled to oxidative phosphorylation as part of energy metabolism.
To show origins for the energy transducing nucleotide triphophates ATP, ITP, UTP and CTP, which derive from the purine bases adenosine and inosine (or hypoxanthine) and the pyrimidine bases uridine and cytosine.
The accretion to those droplets of the metabolic processes that produced the amino acids, thereby producing the amino acids themselves.
Similarly, the processes that produced the fatty acids as the amphiphilic substances that would have accumulated on oil droplet surfaces, so stabilizing those droplets.
The emergence of macromolecules, as homeostatic energy reservoirs, including:-
Polysaccharides. A form of RNA that predominantly used the bases A, U, C and I. The proteins, formed from the alpha amino acids, including the reason the amino acids found in current proteins came to be selected and why enzyme catalysis became associated with those proteins.
Lipids, lipid bilayer membranes and cell walls, along with the reasons for metabolism being largely contained within them.
Bacterial “protocell” structures, with a membrane-wall-membrane morphology similar to that found in current day, gram-negative bacteria, though lacking any genetic apparatus.
In short, this study begins with some fairly moderate assumptions, namely the existence of a random “prebiotic soup” and the validity of the theory of prebiotic oscillations, described previously. However, from there it will develop the concept of the protocell as a three-dimensional object of a type likely to occur within that soup. From those assumptions, it will suggest mechanisms for the evolutionary emergence of all the main classes of metabolite, metabolic process, macromolecule and supramolecular structure found in modern bacteria, excepting only the genetic apparatus.
I would be interested in any feedback readers may wish to offer.
Later I shifted the focus of my work toward applying bioepistemic evolution to developing a theory for the origin of life. To that end, a few years ago, I presented a poster at an RS meeting to indicate how this form of evolutionary theory could account for the origin of biochemical pathways, that study being entitled "The Theory of Prebiotic Oscillations." Later, I used the same approach to understanding the origin of chiral specificity. These two studies were also I made available on the above web site.
I have continued my interest in the origin of life and am now making my latest study on this topic available to readers. The new study is an extension of the previous work and is entitled "Energy Metabolism and the Evolutionary Origin of Cells." It is not located on "Sex and Philosophy" but on the "Evolution and Origin" web site – which is also my own but uses a more generally appropriate domain name.
The link is "http://www.evolution-origin.co.uk"
on which I expect to locate most of my forthcoming work. The new study can be found under the rank0 B button.
The aim of "Energy Metabolism and the Evolutionary Origin of Cells" is to use bioepistemic evolution to provide a new and chemically plausible account of the origins of several aspects of life.
Specifically,
To describe the chemical nature of the first “protocells,” these being viewed as oil droplets surrounded by a boundary layer of monosaccharides and polysaccharides.
It argues that anaerobic glycolysis first arose on those oil droplets and suggests how and why it became coupled to oxidative phosphorylation as part of energy metabolism.
To show origins for the energy transducing nucleotide triphophates ATP, ITP, UTP and CTP, which derive from the purine bases adenosine and inosine (or hypoxanthine) and the pyrimidine bases uridine and cytosine.
The accretion to those droplets of the metabolic processes that produced the amino acids, thereby producing the amino acids themselves.
Similarly, the processes that produced the fatty acids as the amphiphilic substances that would have accumulated on oil droplet surfaces, so stabilizing those droplets.
The emergence of macromolecules, as homeostatic energy reservoirs, including:-
Polysaccharides. A form of RNA that predominantly used the bases A, U, C and I. The proteins, formed from the alpha amino acids, including the reason the amino acids found in current proteins came to be selected and why enzyme catalysis became associated with those proteins.
Lipids, lipid bilayer membranes and cell walls, along with the reasons for metabolism being largely contained within them.
Bacterial “protocell” structures, with a membrane-wall-membrane morphology similar to that found in current day, gram-negative bacteria, though lacking any genetic apparatus.
In short, this study begins with some fairly moderate assumptions, namely the existence of a random “prebiotic soup” and the validity of the theory of prebiotic oscillations, described previously. However, from there it will develop the concept of the protocell as a three-dimensional object of a type likely to occur within that soup. From those assumptions, it will suggest mechanisms for the evolutionary emergence of all the main classes of metabolite, metabolic process, macromolecule and supramolecular structure found in modern bacteria, excepting only the genetic apparatus.
I would be interested in any feedback readers may wish to offer.
