iScience
Volume 23, Issue 11, 20 November 2020, 101756
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Perspective
Thresholds in Origin of Life Scenarios

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101756Get rights and content
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open access

Highlights

  • Thresholds delineate qualitatively states in origin of life and can be studied quantitatively.

  • Crossing thresholds is driven by environment, system parameters, or coupling thereof.

  • Articulating series of thresholds reveals evolutionary pathways in origin of life scenarios.

  • Thresholds guide the interdisciplinary coordination of experiments, observations and theory.

Summary

Thresholds are widespread in origin of life scenarios, from the emergence of chirality, to the appearance of vesicles, of autocatalysis, all the way up to Darwinian evolution. Here, we analyze the “error threshold,” which poses a condition for sustaining polymer replication, and generalize the threshold approach to other properties of prebiotic systems. Thresholds provide theoretical predictions, prescribe experimental tests, and integrate interdisciplinary knowledge. The coupling between systems and their environment determines how thresholds can be crossed, leading to different categories of prebiotic transitions. Articulating multiple thresholds reveals evolutionary properties in prebiotic scenarios. Overall, thresholds indicate how to assess, revise, and compare origin of life scenarios.

Subject Areas

Chemistry
Biological Sciences
Biochemistry
Evolutionary Biology
Evolutionary Processes
Astrobiology
Astrochemistry

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