Origin of Life: Modern Theory of

Origin of Life
by Puja Mondal Biology

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Read this article to learn about the Modern Theory also known as
Oparin-Haldane Theory of Origin of Life !

Modern Theory or Oparin-Haldane Theory of Origin of

Life:
According to this theory life originated on early earth through physicochemical processes of atoms combining to form molecules, molecules in turn
reacting to produce inorganic and organic compounds. Organic compounds
interacted to produce all types of macromolecules which organised to form the
first living system or cells.

Image Courtesy : upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Blacksmoker_in_Atlantic_Ocean.jpg

Thus according to this theory life originated upon our earth spontaneously
from non-living matter. First inorganic compounds and then organic
compounds were formed in accordance with ever-changing environmental
conditions. This is called chemical evolution which cannot occur under present
environmental conditions upon earth. Conditions suitable for origin of life
existed only upon primitive earth.
Oparin-Haldane theory is also called chemical theory or naturalistic theory. A.
I. Oparin (1894-1980) was a Russian Scientist. He published his book The
origin of Life in 1936 and an English edition in 1938. J.B.S. Haldane (18921964) was born in England but migrated to India in July 1957 and settled in
Bhubaneswar, Orissa. He was biologist, biochemist and geneticist. Both
Oparin (1938) and Haldane (1929) gave similar views regarding the origin of
life.

Modem views regarding the origin of life include chemical evolution and
biological evolution:

A. Chemical Evolution (Chemogeny):

1. The Atomic Phase:

Early earth had innumerable atoms of all those elements (e.g., hydrogen,
oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, etc.) which are essential for
the formation of protoplasm. Atoms were segregated in three concentric
masses according to their weights, (a) The heaviest atoms of iron, nickel,
copper, etc. were found in the centre of the earth, (b) Medium weight atoms of
sodium, potassium, silicon, magnesium, aluminium, phosphorus, chlorine,
fluorine, sulphur, etc. were collected in the core of the earth, (c) The lightest
atoms of nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon etc. formed the primitive
atmosphere.

2. Formation of Inorganic Molecules:

Free atoms combined to form inorganic molecules such as H2 (Hydrogen),
N2 (Nitrogen), H20 (Water vapour), CH4 (Methane), NH3 (Ammonia),
C02 (Carbon dioxide). Hydrogen atoms were most numerous and most
reactive in primitive atmosphere.
First hydrogen atoms combined with all oxygen atoms to form water and
leaving no free oxygen. Thus primitive atmosphere was reducing atmosphere
(without free oxygen) unlike the present oxidising atmosphere (with free
oxygen).
Hydrogen atoms also combined with nitrogen, forming ammonia (NH3). So
water and ammonia were probably the first molecules of primitive earth.

3. Formation of Simple Organic Molecules (Monomers):

The early inorganic molecules interacted and produced simple organic
molecules such as simple sugars (e.g., ribose, deoxyribose, glucose, etc.),
nitrogenous bases (e.g., purines, pyrimidines), amino acids, glycerol, fatty
acids, etc.

Torrential rains must have fallen. As the water rushed down, it must have
dissolved away and carried with it salts and minerals, and ultimately
accumulated in the form of oceans. Thus ancient oceanic water contained
large amounts of dissolved NH3, CH4, HCN, nitrides, carbides, various gases
and elements.
CH4 + C02 + H20 > Sugars + Glycerol + Fatty Acids
CH4 + HCN + NH3 + H20 > Purines + Pyrimidines
CH4 + NH3 + C02 + H20 > Amino Acids
Some external sources must have been acting on the mixture for reactions.
These external sources might be (i) solar radiations such as ultra-violet light,
X-rays, etc., (ii) energy from electrical discharges like lightning, (iii) high
energy radiations are other sources of energies (probably unstable isotopes
on the primitive earth). There was no ozone layer in the atmosphere.

A soup-like broth of chemicals formed in oceans of the early earth from which
living cells are believed to have appeared, was termed by J.B. Haldane (1920)
as prebiotic soup (also called hot dilute soup). Thus the stage was set for
combination of various chemical elements. Once formed, the organic
molecules accumulated in water because their degradation was extremely
slow in the absence of any life or enzyme catalysts.
Experimental Evidence for Abiogenic Molecular Evolution of Life:
Stanley Miller in 1953, who was then a graduate student of Harold Urey
(1893-1981) at the University of Chicago, demonstrated it clearly that ultraviolet radiation or electrical discharges or heat or a combination of these can
produce complex organic compounds from a mixture of methane, ammonia,
water (stream of water), and hydrogen. The ratio of methane, ammonia and
hydrogen in Millers experiment was 2:1:2.

Miller circulated four gases methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water vapour
in an air tight apparatus and passed electrical discharges from electrodes at
800C. He passed the mixture through a condenser.

He circulated the gases continuously in this way for one week and then
analysed the chemical composition of the liquid inside the apparatus. He
found a large number of simple organic compounds including some amino
acids such as alanine, glycine and aspartic acid. Miller conducted the
experiment to test the idea that organic molecules could be synthesized in a
reducing environment.
Other substances, such as urea, hydrogen cyanide, lactic acid and acetic acid
were also present. In another experiment Miller circulated the mixture of the
gases in the same way but he did not pass the electric discharge. He could
not get the significant yield of the organic compounds.
Later on many investigators have synthesized a great variety of organic
compounds including purines, pyrimidines and simple sugars, etc. It is
considered that the essential building blocks such as nucleotides, amino acids, etc. of living organisms could thus have formed on the primitive earth.

4. Formation of Complex Organic Molecules

(Macromolecules):
A variety of amino acids, fatty acids, hydrocarbons, purines and pyrimidine
bases, simple sugars and other organic compounds accumulated in the
ancient seas. In the primeval atmosphere electrical discharge, lightning, solar
energy, ATP and polyphosphates might have provided the source of energy
for polymerisation reactions of organic synthesis.
S.W. Fox of the University of Miami has demonstrated that if a nearly dry
mixture of amino acids is heated, polypeptide molecules are synthesized.
Similarly simple sugars could form polysaccharides and fatty acids could
combine to produce fats. Amino acids could form proteins, when other factors
were involved.
Thus the small simple organic molecules combined to form large complex
organic molecules, e.g., amino acid units joined to form polypeptides and
proteins, simple sugar units combined to form polysaccharides, fatty acids and
glycerol united to form fats, sugars, nitrogenous bases, and phosphates
combined into nucleotides which polymerized into nucleic acids in the ancient
oceans.

Sugar + Sugar -> Polysaccharides

Fatty Acides + Glycerol -> Fats
Aminoacids- + Aminoacids > Proteins
Nitrogenous Bases + Pentose Sugars + Phosphates > Nucleotides
Nucleotides + Nucleotides > Nucleic Acids
Which came First RNA or Protein?
The RNA first Hypothesis:
In the early 1980s three scientists (Leslia orgel, Francis Crick and Carl
Woese) independently proposed the RNA World as the first stage in the
evolution of life in which RNA catalysed all molecules necessary for survival
and replication. Thomas Ceck and Sidney Altman shared Nobel Prize in

chemistry in 1989 because they discovered that RNA can be both a substrate
and an enzyme.
If the first cells used RNA as their hereditary molecule, DNA evolved from an
RNA template. DNA probably did not evolve as a hereditary molecule un tills
RNA based life became enclosed in membrane. Once cells evolved DNA
probably replaced RNA as the genetic code for most organisms.
The Protein First Hypothesis:
A number of authors (for example Sidney Fox, 1978) claimed that a protein
catalytic system must have developed before a nucleic acid replicative
system. Sidney Fox had shown that amino acids polymerized abiotically when
exposed to dry heat to form proteinoids.
Cairns-Smiths Hypothesis:
It was proposed by Graham Caims-Smith, according to which both proteins
and RNA originated at the same time.
Formation of Nucleoproteins:
The giant nucleoprotein molecules were formed by the union of nucleic acid
and protein molecules. These nucleoprotein particles were described as free
living genes. Nucleoproteins gave most probably the first sign of life.

B. Biological Evolution (Biogeny):

Conditions for the Origin of Life:
For origin of life, at least three conditions are needed.
(a) There must have been a supply of replicators, i.e., self-producing
molecules.

(b) Copying of these replicators must have been subject to error through
mutation.
(c) The system of replicators must have required a continuous supply of free
energy and partial isolation from the general environment.
The high temperature in early earth would have fulfilled the requirement of
mutation.

1. Protobionts or Protocells:
These are at least two types of fairly simple laboratory produced structures
Oparins coacervates and Foxs microspheres which possess some of the
basic prerequisites of proto cells.
Although these structures were created artificially, they point to the likelihood
that non-biological membrane enclosures (proto cells) could have sustained
reactive systems for at least short periods of time and led to research on the
experimental production of membrane bound vesicles containing molecules,
i.e., proto cells.
(i) Coacervates:
The first hypothesis was proposed by Oparin (1920). According to this
hypothesis early proto cell could have been a coacervate. Oparin gave the
term coacervates. These were non-living structures that led to the formation of
the first living cells from which the more complex cells have today evolved.
Oparin speculated that a proto cell consisted a carbohydrates, proteins, lipids
and nucleic acids that accumulated to form a coacervate. Such a structure

could have consisted of a collection of organic macromolecules surrounded by

a film of water molecules.
This arrangement of water molecules, although not a membrane, could have
functioned as a physical barrier between the organic molecules and their
surroundings. They could selectively take in materials from their surroundings
and incorporate them into their structure.

Coacervates have been synthesized in the laboratory. They can selectively

absorb chemicals from the surrounding water and incorporate them into their
structure. Some coacervates contain enzymes that direct a specific type of
chemical reaction.
Because they lack a definite membrane, no one claims coacervates are alive,
but they do exhibit some life like characters. They have a simple but persistent
organization. They can remain in solution for extended periods. They have the
ability to increase in size.
(ii) Microspheres:
An another hypothesis is that early proto cell could have been a microsphere.
A microsphere is a non-living collection of organic macromolecules with

double layered outer boundary. The term microsphere was given by Sydney
Fox (1958-1964).
Sidney Fox demonstrated the ability to build microspheres from proteinoids.
Proteinoids are protein like structures consisting of branched chains of amino
acids. Proteinoids are formed by the dehydration synthesis of amino acids at a
temperature of 180C. Fox, from the University of Miami, showed that it is
feasible to combine single amino acids into polymers of proteinoids. He also
demonstrated the ability to build microspheres from these proteinoids.
Fox observed small spherical cell-like units that had arisen from aggregations
of proteinoids. These molecular aggregates were called proteinoid
microspheres. The first non-cellular forms of life could have originated 3 billion
years back. They would have been giant molecules (RNA, Proteins,
Polysaccharides etc.).

Microspheres can be formed when proteinoids are placed in boiling water and
slowly allowed to cool. Some of the proteinoid material produces a doubleboundary structure that encloses the microsphere. Although these walls do

not contain lipids, they do exhibit some membrane like characteristics and
suggest the structure of a cellular membrane.
Microspheres swell or shrink depending on the osmotic potential in the
surrounding solution. They also display a type of internal movement
(streaming) similar to that exhibited by cells and contain some proteinoids that
function as enzymes. Using ATP as a source of energy, microspheres can
direct the formation of polypeptides and nucleic acids. They can absorb
material from the surrounding medium.
They have the ability of motility, growth, binary fission into two particles and a
capacity of reproduction by budding and fragmentation. Superficially, their
budding resembles with those of bacteria and fungi.
According to some investigators, microspheres can be considered first living
cells.

2. Origin of Prokaryotes:
Prokaryotes were originated from proto cells about 3.5 billion years ago in the
sea. The atmosphere was anaerobic because free oxygen was absent in the
atmosphere. Prokaryotes do not have nuclear membrane, cytoskeleton or
complex organelles. They divide by binary fission. Some of the oldest known
fossil cells appear as parts of stromatolites. Stromatolites are formed today
from sediments and photosynthetic prokaryotes (mainly filamentous
cynobacteria blue green algae).

3. Evolution of Modes of Nutrition:

(i) Heterotrophs:

The earliest prokaryotes presumably obtained energy by the fermentation of

organic molecules from the sea broth in oxygen free atmosphere (reducing
atmosphere). They required readymade organic material as food and thus
they were heterotrophs.
(ii) Autotrophs:
Due to rapid increase in the number of heterotrophs the nutrient from sea
water began to disappear and gradually exhausted. That led to the evolution
of autotrophs. These organisms were capable of producing their own organic
molecules by chemosynthesis or photosynthesis.
(a) Chemoautotrophs:
Drop in temperature stopped synthesis of organic molecules in the sea water.
Some of the early prokaryotes got converted into chemoautotrophs which
prepared organic food by using energy released during certain inorganic
chemical reactions. These anaerobic chemoautotrophs were like present
anaerobic bacteria. They released CO2 in the atmosphere.
(b) Photoautotrophs:
Evolution of chlorophyll molecule enabled certain protocells to utilize light
energy and synthesize carbohydrates. These were anaerobic
photoautotrophs. They did not use water as a hydrogen source. They were
similar to present day sulphur bacteria in which hydrogen sulphide split into
hydrogen and sulphur. Hydrogen was used in food manufacture and sulphur
was released as a waste product.
Aerobic photoautotrophs used water as a source of hydrogen and carbon
dioxide as source of carbon to synthesize carbohydrate in the presence of
solar energy. The first aerobic photoautotrophs were cyanobacteria (blue

green algae) like forms which had chlorophyll. They released oxygen in the
atmosphere as the by product of photosynthesis. The main source of genetic
variation was mutation.
Oxygen Revolution:
As the number of photoautotrophs increased, oxygen was released in the sea
and atmosphere. Free oxygen than reacted with methane and ammonia
present in the primitive atmosphere and transformed methane and ammonia
into carbon dioxide and free nitrogen.
CH4 + 202 - > CO2 + 2H2O
4NH3 + 3O2 > 2N2 + 6H2O
The oldest fossil belonging to blue green algae, named Archaeospheroides
barbertonensis which is 3.2 billion years old. Oxygen releasing prokaryotes
first appeared at least 2.5 billion years ago.

4. Formation of Ozone Layer:

As oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere, the ultraviolet light changed some
of oxygen into ozone.
2O2 + O2 - > 2O3
The ozone formed a layer in the atmosphere, blocking the ultraviolet light and
leaving the visible light as the main source of energy.

5. Origin of Eukaryotes:
The eukaryotes developed from primitive prokaryotic cells about 1.5 billion
years ago. There are two views regarding the origin of eukaryotes.
(i) Symbiotic Origin:

According to Margulis (1970-1981) of Boston University, some anaerobic

predator host cells engulfed primitive aerobic bacteria but did not digest them.
These aerobic bacteria established themselves inside the host cells as
symbionts. Such predator host cells became the first eukaryotic cells.
The predator host cells that engulfed aerobic bacteria evolved into animal
cells while those that captured both aerobic bacteria and blue-green algae
became eukaryotic plant cells. The aerobic bacteria established themselves
as mitochondria and blue green algae as chloroplasts.

(ii) Origin by Invagination:

According to this view cell organelles of eukaryotic cells might have originated
by invagination of surface membrane of primitive prokaryotic cells.