A team of researchers is developing tools to predict the features of life as we don't know it. In a new study, they identify universal patterns in the chemistry of life that do not appear to depend on specific molecules.
From: Santa Fe Institute
February 28, 2022 -- The
only references we have for "life" are the forms we know on Earth.
Astrobiologists suspect that the search for alien life, and even for the
origins of life on Earth, may require a broader scope. A NASA-funded team of
researchers is developing tools to predict the features of life as we don't know
it. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, the team identifies universal patterns in the chemistry of
life that do not appear to depend on specific molecules.
"We
want to have new tools for identifying and even predicting features of life as
we don't know it," says Santa Fe Institute External Professor Sara Imari
Walker (Arizona State University), a co-author on the paper. "To do so, we
are aiming to identify the universal laws that should apply to any biochemical
system. This includes developing quantitative theory for the origins of life,
and using theory and statistics to guide our search for life on other
planets."
On
Earth, life emerges from the interplay of hundreds of chemical compounds and
reactions. Some of these compounds and reactions are found universally across
Earth's organisms. Using the Integrated Microbial Genomes and Microbiomes
database, the team investigated the enzymes -- the functional drivers of biochemistry
-- found in bacteria, archaea, and eukarya to reveal a new kind of biochemical
universality.
Enzymes can be
categorized into a taxonomy of broad functional classes -- groups designated by
what they do, from using water molecules to break chemical bonds (hydrolases)
to rearranging molecular structures (isomerases) to joining large molecules
together (ligases). The team compared how the abundance of enzymes in each of
these functional categories changed in relation to the overall abundance of
enzymes in an organism. They discovered various scaling laws -- almost
algorithmic relationships -- between the number of enzymes in different enzyme
classes and the size of an organism's genome. They also found that these laws
don't depend on the particularenzymes in those classes.
"Here we find that
you get these scaling relationships without needing to conserve exact
membership. You need a certain number of transferases, but not particular transferases,"
says SFI Professor Chris Kempes, a co-author on the paper. "There are a
lot 'synonyms,' and those synonyms scale in systematic ways."
On Earth, organisms use
DNA and, through RNA, create proteins. But will the macromolecules of DNA, RNA,
and proteins help us identify life across the universe, understand the origins
of life on Earth, or develop synthetic biology? "As a team, we think
that's not likely," says Kempes. The functions those
macromolecules serve, however, and the metabolic scaling relationships observed
in organic, Earth-based life, just might be. "Even if life elsewhere used
really different molecules, these sort of functional categories and scaling
laws might be conserved throughout the universe," says Kempes.
Additional authors on
this study are first author Dylan Gagler (New York University Langone Health);
Hyunju Kim, Bradley Karas, John Malloy, and Veronica Mierzejewski (Arizona
State University); and Aaron Goldman (Oberlin College and the Blue Marble Space
Institute for Science).
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220228161618.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment