Cryosphere and Psychrophiles: Insights into a Cold Origin of Life?

• Published in: Life (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 7; no. 2; p. 25
• Main Author: Feller, Georges
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 11-06-2017; MPDI; MDPI
• Subjects: Bacteria; Biochemistry, biophysics & molecular biology; Biochimie, biophysique & biologie moléculaire; Cryosphere; Crystals; eutectic phase; ice; Ice crystals; Life sciences; Low temperature; Psychrophiles; Psychrophilic bacteria; Review; Ribonucleic acid; ribozyme; RNA; RNA world; Sciences du vivant; Sea ice; Veins (geology); cryosphere; eutectic phase; ice; psychrophiles; RNA world; ribozyme
• ISSN: 2075-1729; 2075-1729
• DOI: 10.3390/life7020025

Psychrophiles thrive permanently in the various cold environments on Earth. Their unsuspected ability to remain metabolically active in the most extreme low temperature conditions provides insights into a possible cold step in the origin of life. More specifically, metabolically active psychrophilic bacteria have been observed at -20 °C in the ice eutectic phase (i.e., the liquid veins between sea ice crystals). In the context of the RNA world hypothesis, this ice eutectic phase would have provided stability to the RNA molecules and confinement of the molecules in order to react and replicate. This aspect has been convincingly tested by laboratory experiments.