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MBE Advance Access originally published online on March 31, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2006 23(6):1286-1292; doi:10.1093/molbev/msk014
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Article

The Stepwise Evolution of Early Life Driven by Energy Conservation

James G. Ferry* and Christopher H. House{dagger}

* Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Pennsylvania State Astrobiology Research Center, 205 South Frear Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University; and {dagger} Department of Geosciences and Pennsylvania State Astrobiology Research Center, 220 Deike Building, Pennsylvania State University

E-mail: jgf3{at}psu.edu.

Two main theories have emerged for the origin and early evolution of life based on heterotrophic versus chemoautotrophic metabolisms. With the exception of a role for CO, the theories have little common ground. Here we propose an alternative theory for the early evolution of the cell which combines principal features of the widely disparate theories. The theory is based on the extant pathway for conversion of CO to methane and acetate, largely deduced from the genomic analysis of the archaeon Methanosarcina acetivorans. In contrast to current paradigms, we propose that an energy-conservation pathway was the major force which powered and directed the early evolution of the cell. We envision the proposed primitive energy-conservation pathway to have developed sometime after a period of chemical evolution but prior to the establishment of diverse protein-based anaerobic metabolisms. We further propose that energy conservation played the predominant role in the later evolution of anaerobic metabolisms which explains the origin and evolution of extant methanogenic pathways.

Key Words: Methanosarcina acetivorans • energy conservation • methanogenesis • acetate kinase • phosphotransacetylase


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