Could Life Have Started on Mars? Planetary Conditions That Assemble and Destroy Protocells

Early Mars was likely habitable, but could life actually have started there? While cellular life emerged from prebiotic chemistry through a pre-Darwinian selection process relevant to both Earth and Mars, each planet posed unique selection ‘hurdles’ to this process. We focus on drivers of selection...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Life
Main Authors:	Francesca C. A. Cary, David W. Deamer, Bruce F. Damer, Sarah A. Fagents, Kathleen C. Ruttenberg, Stuart P. Donachie
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	MDPI AG 2024-03-01
Subjects:	selection protocells Mars prebiotic chemistry cations origin of life
Online Access:	https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/14/3/415

Similar Items

Multistable Protocells Can Aid the Evolution of Prebiotic Autocatalytic Sets
by: Angad Yuvraj Singh, et al.
Published: (2023-12-01)

The Construction of Biological ‘Inter-Identity’ as the Outcome of a Complex Process of Protocell Development in Prebiotic Evolution
by: Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo, et al.
Published: (2020-05-01)

Engineering coacervate droplets towards the building of multiplex biomimetic protocells
by: Hua Wu, et al.
Published: (2022-12-01)

The Effect of Environment on the Evolution and Proliferation of Protocells of Increasing Complexity
by: Suvam Roy, et al.
Published: (2022-08-01)

Coupled Phases and Combinatorial Selection in Fluctuating Hydrothermal Pools: A Scenario to Guide Experimental Approaches to the Origin of Cellular Life
by: Bruce Damer, et al.
Published: (2015-03-01)

Recent progress in primitive polyester synthesis and membraneless microdroplet assembly
by: Tony Z. Jia, et al.
Published: (2023-03-01)

Droplets: Unconventional Protocell Model with Life-Like Dynamics and Room to Grow
by: Martin M Hanczyc
Published: (2014-12-01)

Engineering Protocells: Prospects for Self-Assembly and Nanoscale Production-Lines
by: David M. Miller, et al.
Published: (2015-03-01)

Models of Protocells Undergoing Asymmetrical Division
by: Marco Villani, et al.
Published: (2024-03-01)

Influence of Metal Ions on Model Protoamphiphilic Vesicular Systems: Insights from Laboratory and Analogue Studies
by: Manesh Prakash Joshi, et al.
Published: (2021-12-01)

Protocell Dynamics: Modelling Growth and Division of Lipid Vesicles Driven by an Autocatalytic Reaction
by: Japraj Taneja, et al.
Published: (2025-04-01)

Polyesters as a Model System for Building Primitive Biologies from Non-Biological Prebiotic Chemistry
by: Kuhan Chandru, et al.
Published: (2020-01-01)

Origin of Life on Mars: Suitability and Opportunities
by: Benton C. Clark, et al.
Published: (2021-06-01)

Thermodynamics of Duplication Thresholds in Synthetic Protocell Systems
by: Bernat Corominas-Murtra
Published: (2019-01-01)

Protocells: At the Interface of Life and Non-Life
by: Wentao Ma, et al.
Published: (2015-02-01)

Fatty Acid Vesicles as Hard UV-C Shields for Early Life
by: Iván Lechuga, et al.
Published: (2023-02-01)

Glucose Responsive Coacervate Protocells from Microfluidics for Diabetic Wound Healing
by: Chong Wang, et al.
Published: (2024-07-01)

A Fusion–Growth Protocell Model Based on Vesicle Interactions with Pyrite Particles
by: Dong Guo, et al.
Published: (2024-06-01)

Non-interfacial self-assembly of synthetic protocells
by: Xiaolin Xu, et al.
Published: (2023-07-01)

From Vesicles to Protocells: The Roles of Amphiphilic Molecules
by: Yuka Sakuma, et al.
Published: (2015-03-01)

Macrophage Reprogramming with Anti‐miR223‐Loaded Artificial Protocells Enhances In Vivo Cancer Therapeutic Potential
by: Paco López‐Cuevas, et al.
Published: (2022-12-01)

Polymeric Giant Unilamellar Vesicles Support Longevity of Native Nuclei in Protocells
by: Lukas Heuberger, et al.
Published: (2025-06-01)

Primitive Membrane Formation, Characteristics and Roles in the Emergent Properties of a Protocell
by: Pierre-Alain Monnard, et al.
Published: (2011-02-01)

The Bootstrap Model of Prebiotic Networks of Proteins and Nucleic Acids
by: Thomas Farquharson, et al.
Published: (2022-05-01)

Population Dynamics of Autocatalytic Sets in a Compartmentalized Spatial World
by: Wim Hordijk, et al.
Published: (2018-08-01)

The Impact of Salts on Single Chain Amphiphile Membranes and Implications for the Location of the Origin of Life
by: Sarah Maurer
Published: (2017-11-01)

Origin of Species before Origin of Life: The Role of Speciation in Chemical Evolution
by: Tony Z. Jia, et al.
Published: (2021-02-01)

Did Solid Surfaces Enable the Origin of Life?
by: İrep Gözen
Published: (2021-08-01)

Engineered colloidosomes as biomimetic cellular models
by: Minghao Wei, et al.
Published: (2023-03-01)

Survival of RNA Replicators Is Much Easier in Protocells Than in Surface-Based, Spatial Systems
by: Vismay Shah, et al.
Published: (2019-08-01)

The RNA-DNA world and the emergence of DNA-encoded heritable traits
by: Suvam Roy, et al.
Published: (2024-12-01)

Toward Spatially Regulated Division of Protocells: Insights into the E. coli Min System from in Vitro Studies
by: Simon Kretschmer, et al.
Published: (2014-12-01)

Mimicking early life-forms in the lab
by: Maarten Lubbers, et al.
Published: (2025-08-01)

Putative roles of terpenoids in primitive membranes
by: Joshua P. King, et al.
Published: (2023-11-01)

Freeze-thaw cycles induce content exchange between cell-sized lipid vesicles
by: Thomas Litschel, et al.
Published: (2018-01-01)

Formation and Stability of Prebiotically Relevant Vesicular Systems in Terrestrial Geothermal Environments
by: Manesh Prakash Joshi, et al.
Published: (2017-11-01)

Comparing Rover and Helicopter Planetary Mission Architectures in a Mars Analog Setting in Iceland
by: Samantha Gwizd, et al.
Published: (2024-01-01)

Concepts of a synthetic minimal cell: Information molecules, metabolic pathways, and vesicle reproduction
by: Minoru Kurisu, et al.
Published: (2024-01-01)

Emergence Simulation of Biological Cell-like Shapes Satisfying the Conditions of Life Using a Lattice-Type Multiset Chemical Model
by: Takeshi Ishida
Published: (2022-10-01)

Role of hydrodynamic flows in chemically driven droplet division
by: Rabea Seyboldt, et al.
Published: (2018-01-01)