What came first, life or evolution?

We know that Darwinian evolution acts on all forms of life, but does evolution act on non-living materials as well? In a paper published in Nature Chemistry on 29 November, Sijbren Otto, Professor of Systems Chemistry at the University of Groningen, demonstrates that key principles of Darwinian evolution, such as survival of the fittest, also manifest themselves in simple non-living systems.

Otto and his team used a system of three different self-replicating molecules, that, under the right conditions, grow and divide spontaneously. When set up to compete against each other, all requiring the same chemical building block to grow and replicate, one of them eventually outcompeted the others. This is an example of ‘survival of the fittest’. However, when they required different building blocks, all replicators were able to ‘survive’ and co-exist. This resembles how species co-exist in different ecological niches.

These results demonstrate that the basic principles of Darwinian evolution can act on non-living materials, suggesting that evolution predates life. The next step is to investigate where Darwinian evolution can lead such non-living materials. ‘This work sheds new light on how life may have emerged from non-living materials and marks an important step in the synthesis of new forms of life in the laboratory.’

Reference: Marcel J. Eleveld, Yannick Geiger, Juntian Wu, Armin Kiani, Gaël Schaeffer & Sijbren Otto 
Nature Chemistry: Competitive exclusion among self-replicating molecules curtails the tendency of chemistry to diversify. Nature Chemistry, 29 November 2024