Modeling statistics of polypeptides in emissions from smokers near ocean ridges.

Abstract

We have previously shown in model studies that rapid quenches of systems of monomers interacting to form polymer chains can fix nonequilibrium chemistries which could lead to the origin of life. We suggested that such quenching processes might have occurred at very high rates on early Earth, giving an efficient mechanism for natural sorting through enormous numbers of nonequilibrium chemistries from which those most likely to lead to life could be naturally selected. Taking account of kinetic barriers, we found good agreement between laboratory quenching experiments on solutions of amino acids and the resulting model. We also made a preliminary comparison between reported data on polypeptides sampled from emissions from smokers near ocean ridges and our model. However, that previous model assumed that the concentrations of all monomeric amino acids in the medium were the same whereas that is not the case in samples taken from ocean smokers. Here we take account of the heterogeneous concentrations of the amino acid monomers in the medium in the analysis of the smoker data and compare the results with the data on polypeptide concentrations found in the samples taken by a submersible in the Mariana Trough. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that smokers were the source of large and extremely diverse numbers of polypeptides in thermal disequilibrium which could incubate processes leading to life.