ORIGIN OF LIFE

Course name - Introductory Biology

Course code – UGS-111
Credit hours – 2(1+1)
Course Teacher – Dr. Girish Tantuway and
Dr. Kanchan Gangaram Padwal
Presented by –
Harsh Raj
(21230AGC016)
B.sc. Agriculture (Hons.)
1st-year (semester-1)
The mystery is still unresolved…

Let us now study the

important theories given by
the biologists…
1. Theory of special creation:

 This theory states that entire universe was formed by super

natural power, god.
 It was proposed by Hebrew et. al. and was largely supported by
Father Suarez.

 according to Hindu mythology.

 God Brahma created life in a single stroke,

 The first man was Manu and Shradha was the first woman.
 according to Christianity.

 God created the entire universe in six days, The earth and the heaven were
created on the first day,  sky on second day, land and plants were formed on
third day, the sun, the moon and the stars on fourth day, fish and fowls on the
fifth day and animals including human beings on the sixth day.

 Adam was the first man and the first woman was Eve. Due to lack of scientific
explanations, this theory was rejected.
2. Theory of spontaneous Generation
(Abiogenesis Theory):

•This theory proposes that the living form arose spontaneously from non-living
materials such as dung, mud, earth etc.
• Von-Helmont proposed this theory and was supported by Anaximenes and
Aristotle.
•According to this theory, the origin of insects took place from dew, frogs and
toads from muddy bottom of ponds, maggots from decaying meat, tapeworms
from excreta of animals and micro-organisms from air or water.
•However, Francisco Redi (1668), Louis Pasteur (1864) and Spallanzani (1765)
rejected the abiogenesis concept experimentally.
3. Biogenesis theory:
 It proposed that life arises from pre-existing life only.
 This concept is supported by following experiments.

i) Redi’s Experiments:
• Francisco Redi(1668), an Italian physician, placed a piece of boiled meat in each of three separate
jars.
• One jar was covered with parchment paper, the other was covered with muslin cloth, and one was
left open.
• He found that only in an opened jar maggots grew.
• Only in the opened jar the flies joined and laid eggs that had grown into maggots.
• Redi concluded, on the basis of the aforementioned experiment, that life can only derive from pre-
existing life, not from non-living substances.
ii) Spallanzani’s experiments:
• In eight bottles, Lazaaro Spallanzani (Italy) put
hay infusion and then it was boiled to make
them sterile.
• He kept four bottles airtight and four of them
loosely corked.
• After few days, dense growth of micro-
organisms was found in loosely corked bottles
whereas no organisms were found to develop in
airtight bottles.
• It was concluded that air consisted of micro-
organism and was the source of contamination.
iii) Pasteur’s Experiments:
• In 1864, an experiment was performed by French biochemist Louis Pasteur in favour of
ideal of biogenesis.
• He used a flask whose neck was bent in form of ‘S’ via heat and filled nearly half of the
flask with nutrient solution.
• Then it was boiled for several hours to kill all the micro-organisms.
• He sealed the tube and left the apparatus undisturbed for various days.
• No sign of life was seen in flask.
• However, when the neck of the flask was broken, micro-organisms appeared.
• Hence, Louis Pasteur concluded that the life can arise only from pre-existing life.
4. Cosmozoic theory:

•This theory states that life, in the form of

spores or seeds called panspermia,
originated from some other planet on earth.

•Richter(1865) suggested this idea and

Arrhenius supported it.

•But this hypothesis is unable to understand

why panspermia, including high
temperatures and many harmful radiations,
could survive in adverse conditions on earth
at that time.
5. Modern or Chemosynthetic
Theory of Origin of life
(Scientific hypothesis):
•Scientists now accept that it is not possible to create life spontaneously.
•Specific requirements for life’s appearance are essential.
•T.H. Huxley and John Tyndall asserted that inorganic chemicals could produce life.
•But as the knowledge of biochemistry was not available that time, their ideas were vagued.
•This idea was proposed by the Russian biochemist A.I. Oparin(1923) and with J.B.S. Haldane’s assistance.
•In his book “The Origin of Life on Earth” in1936, they offered an extensive description of the origin of life by
evolution or chemicals.
•It is, thus, often called the Oparin and Haldane theory.
•According to this theory, through a series of chemical reactions around 4.2 billion years ago, life emerged in water
on primitive earth from chemicals, thus called the biochemical theory of origin of life.
•It is often referred to as the modern synthetic theory of origin of life.
•In three main stages, this theory can be described: Chemogeny, Biogenesis, and Cognogeny.
i. Chemogeny:
• It includes the creation of complex organic molecules
from basic chemicals, such as polysaccharides, fats,
polypeptides, nucleic acids, etc.
• The different chemogenic phases are as follows:

a. Primitive atmosphere formation:

o The earth’s primitive atmosphere was composed of
elements such as N, H, O, C, etc.
o Earth was a fiery spinning ball of hot gases at that
time and produced dicarbon, cynogen, metal carbide,
etc.
o Oxygen was not present in the free state, but as
oxides of aluminum, boron, hydrogen, etc.
b. Formation of inorganic compounds:
The chemical evolution was favored when the
temperature of the primitive earth fell below.
The most common were atoms of hydrogen.
They associated with all available oxygen to
form water.
They all combined with nitrogen and carbon
atoms to form ammonia and methane
respectively.
2H + O → H2O (water)
3H+ N → NH3 (ammonia)
4H + C → CH4 (methane)
c. Formation of simple organic compound:

As the earth cooled down it established a solid crust, which later

formed depressions and elevations.
Meanwhile, the vapors of atmospheric water accumulated and
eventually arrived as rain on the surface of the earth.
In the depressions, the water that accumulated dissolved the
minerals and eventually found the large sized bodies of water
called oceans.
If the earth’s surface cools to 50oC-60oC, the inorganic molecules
combine to form simple organic compounds such as acetylene,
ethylene, ethane, methane, etc. in different forms.
CH+CH→ HC=CH (Acetylene)
CH2+CH2 → H2C=CH2 (ethylene)
CH2 + CH2 → C + CH4 (methane)
d. Formation of Complex Organic Compounds
• As previously formed, the saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons
mixed and recombined in different forms to form complex organic
compounds such as acetaldehyde, aldol, ethyl acetate, acetic acid, ethyl
alcohol, amino acids, glycol, etc. through the process of condensation,
polymerization, and oxide reduction.
 Condensation reactions:
• HC≡ CH + H2O → CH3CHO (acetaldehyde)
• CH3CHO + CH3CHO → CH3CHOHCH2CHO (aldol)
 Oxidoreduction:
• CH3CHO + H2O → CH3COOH + C2H5OH
 Polymerization:
• CH3COOH + C2H5OH → CH3COOCH3CH2 + H2O
• CH2OHCOOH + NH3 → CH2NH2COOH + H2O
• For the above reactions, the sources of energy were ultraviolet rays,
volcanic eruptions, electric energy produced during lightening.
• The complex organic compounds that were formed in ocean gradually
got collected in primitive ocean.
e. Formation of carbohydrates, Proteins, and
Fat:

• Eventually, the primitive ocean polymerized

amino acids, sugars, glycerol, and fatty acids,
etc., producing massive macromolecules such
as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
• Since these complex compounds are the key
protoplasm constituents of living cells, the
possibilities for the origin of life in the
primitive ocean were established by their
synthesis.
• In the meantime, the hydrocarbon reacted to
form nitrogen bases, purines and pyrimidines
with the hot water vapor hydrocyanic acid
and ammonia.
• The oceanic water becomes a rich blend of
organic compound called hot dilute soup or
primordial soup or broths by Haldane as a
result of the above chemical reaction.
ii. Biogeny:
•Following chemogeny, the next step is biogeny.
•Biogeny refers to the formation of primitive life.
•Biogeny consists of following events:

a. Formation of nucleic acids and

nucleoproteins:
• Organic compounds reacted and
aggregated to create new molecules of
greater size and complexity in the
primordial water, organic soup.
• Nitrogen-bases combined with sugar and
phosphate to form nucleotides at high
temperatures in primitive soil during
chemical reactions.
• A large number of nucleotides in various
combinations are joined together to form
very complex molecules called nucleic
acids.
• Nucleic acids had tendency to replicate.
b. Formation of Coacervates:
• Due to intermolecular attraction, the complex organic
compounds of primordial soup are collected to form large
colloidal cells such as aggregates called coacervates or
microsphere.
• As they had the power of growth and break, such coacervates
were efficient and multiplied.
• Coacervate formation is referred to as coacervation.
c. Formation of Primary organism:
• In approximately 3.8 billion years ago, according to Oparin
coacervates, which acquired nucleoproteins either from
seawater or by synthesizing themselves, first cellular
organisms called eobionts or pre-cell or protobionts were
created.
• The outer limiting membranes were created by certain fatty
acids, having strong affinity ,to water.
• For both positive and destructive reactions, some forms of
proteins of eobionts started acting as enzymes.
• The eobionts were identical to protovirus, a present-day virus.
• There were anaerobic and prokaryotic chemoheterotrophs.
iii. Cognogeny:
Diversification of primary species into various modes of life is involved.
a. Origin of autotrophs:
• As the number of chemoheterotrophs steadily increased, they absorbed organic nutrients, contributing to
a reduction in the ocean’s natural food supplies.
• Therefore, primitive organisms began to synthesize organic compounds abundantly present in the sea
from inorganic molecules.
• The anaerobic breakdown of chemicals due to the absence of chlorophyll has provided the energy needed
for the synthesis of organic food.
• Therefore, they were chemoautotrophs, such as nitrifying bacteria, sulphur bacteria, iron bacteria, etc.
• 6CO2  + 12H2S → C6H12O6 + 6H2O +12S
• Later, a green substance from the sea’s magnesium porphyrin called bacteriochlorophyll was formed by
some autotrophic prokaryotes and photosynthesis began.
• This led to the creation of photoautotrophs, such as today’s marine planktonic bacteria.
• As they did not use water to photosynthesize, they were anoxygenic.
• 6CO2+ 12H2S → solar energy  C6H12O6 + 6H2O + 12 Bacteriochlorophyll
• Upto this time, free oxygen was unavailable in the atmosphere.
• At that duration, bacteria chlorophyll went through molecular changes to form true chlorophyll and hence,
true photoautotrophs were evolved.
• These phototrophs synthesized their food by photosynthesis utilizing water as raw material.
• Cyanobacteria was the first oxygenic and aerobic photoautotrophs that evolved about 2700 million years
ago. 6CO2+ 6H2O →  C6H12O6 + 6O2
b. Origin of eukaryotes:
• True photosynthetic
prokaryotes have shifted
to aerobic respiration.
• Then cyano bacteria
developed a true
nucleus like prokaryotes
and transformed into
eukaryotes.
• It were like today’s
unicellular species.
• Multicellular species
have evolved from
unicellular organisms via
the colonization process.
Evidences in
support of origin of
life: Miller-Urey
experiment
In 1953, Stanley Miller
and Harold Urey
conducted an
experiment to test the
biochemical origin of
life hypothesis offered
by Oparin and
Haldane.
•Miller- Urey Experiment:
• Miller constructed an apparatus of glass tube and
flask termed as the spark discharge apparatus.
• The apparatus depicted primitive earth
conditions, including a reducing atmosphere and
an ocean.
• A mixture of gases methane, ammonia and
hydrogen was maintained in the gas chamber in
the ratio 2:2:1 and water in another chamber.
• The gas mixture was pumped through the
apparatus and the energy was supplied through
the use of electrodes in the gas chamber by
boiling water and electric sparks.
•  The experiment initiated with switching on the
electric source and boiling the water and is
continued for a week.
•Observation:
• They noticed a condensed liquid
with a dark color.
• It was gathered and
chromatographically analyzed,
and the liquid was found to be a
mixture of sugars, amino acids
(glycine, alanine, etc.) and fatty
acids.
•Conclusion:
• The experimental results
support the Oparin-Haldane
theory of the origin of life that
organic molecules are created
from inorganic molecules during
the course of the origin of life.