On the nature of the earliest known life forms

Author:

Kanaparthi Dheeraj123ORCID,Lampe Marko4,Zhu Baoli25,Boesen Thomas6,Klingl Andreas7,Schwille Petra1,Lueders Tillmann23

Affiliation:

1. Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry

2. Chair of Ecological Microbiology, BayCeer, University of Bayreuth

3. Helmholtz Zentrum Munich

4. Advanced Light Microscopy Facility, European Molecular Biology Laboratory

5. Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Regions, Taoyuan Agroecosystem Research Station, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences

6. Department of Biosciences, Center for Electromicrobiology

7. Department of Biology, LMU

Abstract

Archaean Eon microfossils were known to have the most complex of prokaryotic morphologies. Given the morphology of an organism is governed by information encoded in its genome, it was proposed that these primitive organisms most likely possessed molecular biological processes. Here we worked with bacterial protoplasts, incapable of regulating either their morphology or reproductive processes. We then exposed these cells to environmental conditions of Archaean Earth to understand if cytological complexity of microfossils is a result of biological or ecological factors. As we reproduced the morphologies of all known Archean microfossils, we propose that complex morphologies of these microfossils could be explained not by presence but by complete absence of molecular biological mechanisms. Environmental conditions and architecture of the cell membrane are the only factors that determined the morphology of these organisms. Based on our observations we argue against the use of morphology in systemic paleontology and present a case for reinterpretation of Archaean microfossils as liposome like protocells.

Publisher

eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

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