“Saan nga ba nagsimula ang lahat?

”
WHEN DID THE FIRST LIFE ON EARTH APPEAR?
• Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago
• Life existed 3.5 billion years ago
What do you think
are the conditions
of the early Earth
which led to the
existence of life?
 THE CONDITIONS OF THE EARLY EARTH

1. Atmosphere contained little or no oxygen.

2. Thick water vapor composed the atmosphere,
along with carbon dioxide, nitrogen, methane,
ammonia and hydrogen.

Will you able to live in

these conditions?
THEORIES ON THE CONDITIONS OF THE EARLY
EARTH
• Oparin and Haldane (1920)
• Earth’s early atmosphere was reducing
(Organic molecules can form)
• Energy for lightning and UV radiation led
to the synthesis of organic molecules
THEORIES ON THE CONDITIONS OF THE EARLY
EARTH
• Oparin and Haldane (1920)
• Earth’s early atmosphere was reducing
(Organic molecules can form)
• Energy for lightning and UV radiation led
to the synthesis of organic molecules
• Oceans -> “Primitive Soup”
 4 MAIN STAGES LEADING
TO THE EXISTENCE OF LIFE
1. Abiotic synthesis of organic molecules, such
as amino acids and nitrogenous bases
2. Joining of these small molecules (monomers)
into polymers
3. Packaging of these molecules into protocells
4. Origin of self-replicating molecules which
made inheritance possible
 1. ABIOGENESIS OF ORGANIC MOLECULES
• Stanley Miller and Harold Urey (1953)

• How mixtures of the organic compounds

necessary for life could have arisen from
simpler compounds on a primitive Earth.
 1. ABIOGENESIS OF ORGANIC MOLECULES
• Stanley Miller and Harold Urey (1953)
• Produced 21 amino acids
• Building block of protein

O…oh..
There’s something
wrong with this
experiment!!!
 OTHER THEORIES ON ABIOGENESIS

•Organic compounds were brought to

Earth by meteorites
•4.5 billion year-old chondrite in
Australia (1969)
•Contains 80 amino acids
 OTHER THEORIES ON ABIOGENESIS

•Life originated from

deep sea hydrothermal vents
•Warm and alkaline water
(40-90 C and 9-11)
Is a soup of organic
molecules enough
for life to exist? Why
or why not?
 2. SYNTHESIS OF POLYMERS FROM
MONOMERS
• Will life exist with just a mixture of amino acids?

B – YES
I - NO
 2. SYNTHESIS OF POLYMERS FROM
MONOMERS
• Will life exist with just a mixture of amino acids?

I - NO
 2. SYNTHESIS OF POLYMERS FROM
MONOMERS
• Every cell has a variety of macromolecules
necessary for it to be alive
• Dripping solutions of RNA to hot sand or clay
produces polymers
• Unlike proteins, these polymers are composed
of cross-linked and linked amino acids
 3. PACKAGING OF MOLECULES INTO
PROTOCELLS

•Protocells – aggregates of
abiotically produced molecules
surrounded by a membrane or
membrane-like structures
3. PACKAGING OF MOLECULES INTO
PROTOCELLS

1. Simple reproduction
and metabolism
2. Maintenance of an
internal environment
different with its
surrounding (selectively
permeable)
 3. PACKAGING OF MOLECULES INTO
PROTOCELLS

•Liposomes – protocells which can

be formed when lipids or other
organic molecules are added to
water
4. ORIGIN OF SELF-REPLICATING MOLECULES

•RNA – possible genetic material of

early life
•Protein synthesis and enzyme-like
catalyst
4. ORIGIN OF SELF-REPLICATING MOLECULES

•Ribozymes – self-replicating RNAs

which act as enzyme-like catalyst
4. ORIGIN OF SELF-REPLICATING MOLECULES

•Protocells may have captured

these RNAs, and then replicated
•RNA could have provided a
template for DNA
4. ORIGIN OF SELF-REPLICATING MOLECULES

•With the DNA inside the protocells,

LIFE could have existed
 Monomers -> Polymers
Spontaneously produced:
 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION
•The concept that life could be
generated from non-living matter
•Frogs leaping from pond/damp mud,
maggots emerging from rotten meat

Is this still TRUE?

 DEBUNKING SPONTANEOUS GENERATION

•Francesco Redi
• Italian physician
• Used sets of jars to demonstrate that
maggots arise from eggs of flies and were
not produced from decaying meat
 DEBUNKING SPONTANEOUS GENERATION

•Louis Pasteur
• Gave a final blow to spontaneous generation
• Used swan-necked flasks to debunk
spontaneous generation
 BIOGENESIS

•Life existed from

pre-existing life
 ABIOGENESIS
•Life existed from
the assembly of non-
living things/molecules