On the reproductive mechanism of Gram-negative protocells

Abstract

AbstractOne of the major challenges of understanding early life or a bottom-up approach to creating synthetic life is to drive the process of reproduction that is entirely dependent on the chemical and physical properties of cell constituents. To achieve this objective, here we transformed cells into a sack of cytoplasm devoid of molecular biological mechanisms regulating their reproduction. Given such primitive cells could only have existed on early Earth, we grew then under Archean Eon environmental conditions. Results of our demonstrate that cells can reproduce very efficiently in the absence of molecular biological mechanisms. The method of their reproduction could be explained by chemical interactions between different cell constituents and by laws of physical chemistry, rather than the information encoded in their genome. Given the simplicity and efficiency of the process, we propose that primitive cells inhabiting early Earth (protocells) could have reproduced by this process.