Project description
Background: Current theory holds that, during the early stages of chemical evolution, microscopic compartments called protocells played a critical role, because they were able to sequester and concentrate small molecules that would react together, to eventually yield the building blocks of life.
Limitations of aqueous protocells: While water-based protocells have been central to prebiotic scenarios, some chemical reactions are typically not favored in aqueous environments. Taking into account the contribution of more hydrophobic environments would thus broaden the scope of available prebiotic chemistries.
Hypothesis. We propose that oil droplets could have enriched the scope of chemical reactions at the onset of life on Earth. Transiently formed near the surface of the oil-covered Hadean Ocean, these droplets would have provided hydrophobic environments, and large interfacial areas, conducive to new prebiotically-plausible chemistries. Evidence suggests the likely presence of stabilized oil droplets on early Earth, and that fatty acid vesicles could transiently transform into such oil droplets.
Objectives. We will demonstrate the potential role of oil droplets in three key chemistries; we will
- explore the potential of non-aqueous environments within oil droplets and at the oil-water interface to facilitate the polymerization of amino acids. In aqueous conditions, solubility issues often result in the formation of only short oligomers, as larger molecules tend to precipitate out of solution;
- investigate how the homeotropic organization of oils at the oil-water interface could favor the photo-oxidative formation of fatty acids, as primitive lipids assembling into membranes;
- examine how auto-catalytic reactions developed by the Feringa team are altered in the presence of large oil-water interfacial areas, contributing to the emergence of homochirality.
By incorporating oil droplets into the framework of prebiotic chemistry, this research aims to uncover new pathways that could have been key to the emergence of life on Earth.
Additional specifications
This research will be conducted collaboratively in the laboratories of Prof. Nathalie Katsonis, focusing on physical chemistry and colloidal chemistry, and Prof. Ben Feringa, specializing in prebiotic chemistry and auto-catalysis. We highly value experience in either of these research fields.
