Abstract: These problem sets and hypothetical solutions were created in preparation for crafting a more effective hypothesis for the abiogenic origin of life on Earth than the more popular and deeply flawed hypotheses, such as the RNA World and Metabolism-First hypotheses.

Disclaimer: None of these solutions are confirmed or even have sufficient evidence to be considered beyond the realm of hypothesis.  They are merely possible solutions, speculation essentially, and nothing more.

Problem Set 1: Abiogenic Paradoxes

• Chemical Ratios
  • Solution: In abiogenic experiments such as that of Miller-Urey, incorrect, abnormally high concentrations of pure substances were used, which did not mimic true early Earth, panspermic early Mars or another reducing panspermic environment; however, that does not mean it is impossible, rather it is far more unlikely for abiogenesis.
• Water Paradox
  • Solution: Polymers do not emerge until later in evolutionary history until an established metabolic system can create the necessary mechanisms to prevent degradation.
• Asphalt Paradox
  • Solution: Most of these problems have a hypothetical solution, however, the asphalt paradox is the most difficult of these to solve: the very processes which create the chemicals necessary for life also create contaminants which destroy or cause these organic chemicals to be ineffective, therefore, the best solution to this problem boils down to near-impossible events or strange metabolic pathways which may be able to avoid creating tar and can be formed without the creation of excess tar but do not have much resemblance to modern-day metabolic pathways.
• Single Biopolymer Paradox
  • Solution: A metabolic system can create the diverse environments needed to form diverse polymers; not even one polymer is needed to establish a metabolism.
• Probability Paradox
  • Solution: RNA is a bad candidate for the genetic storage of early life, and therefore, should not be used as a benchmark, especially when arguing for the capacity of early nucleic acids to spur positive reactions when an XNA could be a far better, simpler and more versatile candidate for such.

Problem Set 2: Energy Dilemmas

• Prebiotic Soup
  • Solution: Deep-sea hydrothermal vents known as black smokers despite providing ample organic molecules needed for abiogenesis, create ample waste products and thermal energy, on the other hand, white smokers, despite their low energy content and alkalinity, could provide adequate energy for low-energy life forms with genetic information that is resistant to alkalinity such as an XNA.  Unfortunately cellular life forms could not originate from them and would likely need to originate from an unrelated managed metabolism.
• Energy Absorption
  • Solution: Despite seemingly irreducibly complex systems for generating ATP from raw energy sources, an earlier and ancient metabolic component of cellular respiration such as a variant of glycolysis could provide energy without the need for complex protein systems and gradients such as those involved in ATP synthase.
• Fermentation
  • Fermentation, while a possible candidate for ancient metabolisms due to its not not relying on ATP synthase, is highly polluting.  There are 3 possible solutions to this:
    • Solution 1: While rather unlikely, natural processes in a certain environment could clear harmful byproducts
    • Solution 2: Fermenters could coevolve with another organism with a contrasting metabolism which clears their waste
    • Solution 3: Other metabolisms similar to fermentation, however less polluting, represented ancient metabolisms.

Problem Set 3: Polymerization Obstacles

• Dilution
  • Solution: Time increases chance of monomer bonding in a solvent.
• Hydrolysis
  • Solution 1: Proto-metabolic world constitutes early life until it provides a proper environment for polymer formation, especially polysaccharides.
  • Solution 2: Most polymers are more resilient to water degradation then are polysaccharides.
• Homochirality
  • Solution 1: Certain environments, as demonstrated by meteorites, favor certain chiralities over others.
  • Solution 2: Early life could exist with multiple chiralities and evolve to be homochiral.
• Intramolecular Cyclisation
  • Solution 1: Chance prevents many instances of cyclisation.
  • Solution 2: Proto-metabolic environment discourages cyclisation.
• Impurities
  • Solution: Certain possible proto-metabolisms eliminate and, in so doing, discourage organic chemistry.
• Premature Truncation
  • Solution 1: Chance prevents many instances of truncation.
  • Solution 2: Proto-metabolic environment discourages truncation.
• Radiation
  • Solution: Thick reducing atmosphere absorbs UV rays and ionizing radiation.
• Free Radicals
  • Solution: Managed metabolism prevents free radicals and free-riding side reactions.  Coevolution between a proto-metabolism and nucleic acids could lead to the evolution of a managed metabolism.

Problem Set 4: Genetic Hurdles

• Replicase Necessity
  • Solution: All known nucleic acids require a replicase or polymerase as a “clutch” to facilitate their propagation, however, much simpler nucleic acids such as XNAs may have been able to replicate with a far lesser clutch, possibly related to a proto-metabolism. The fact that RNA can undergo independent replication with a replicase or similar enzymes, as indicated by many lab results, including those that created Spiegelman’s Monster, gives significant credence to an earlier acellular ribonucleoprotein world. A world from which selfish genetic elements, viruses and cells arise, which was not created abiogenically, having evolved from simpler managed metabolic systems, but instead represents the LUCA for both cellular and acellular life forms.
• Spiegelman’s Monster
  • In a prebiotic environment, Spiegelman’s Monster would not be an evolutionary trend due to its lack of fitness when it comes to 2 major factors:
    • Solution 1: Early nucleic acids from the RNA World and those that existed before it would partner with and derive energy from a pre-metabolic system which would spur the evolution toward greater complexity, and certainly not simplicity.
    • Solution 2: The lab setup of Spiegelman did not represent the prebiotic world, being devoid of waste and limited resources which would help spur the advancement of metabolism and the nucleic acids that manage it, to clear wastes and derive organic molecules from inconvenient resources.
• Regiospecificity
  • Solution 1: Deformations in the formation and replication of early nucleic acids would be tolerated due to the simplicity of the acids and would thereby not completely hinder their replicating abilities, later being selected for to be removed entirely as both the nucleic acids and the enzymes they created become more efficient.
  • Solution 2: A proto-metabolic system could create a more suitable environment and even be selected to promote the formation of non-malformed nucleic acids which would finish the feedback loop by providing better access to catalyzing enzymes.
• Annealing
  • Solution: A pre-metabolism or ribozymal RNA could provide the necessary catalytic function to separate replicated RNA strands without the need for high temperatures or excess energy, which would destroy RNA.
• Error Catastrophe
  • Solution: Early life could contain slow-replicating nucleic acids that could exist in a state far larger than classically known error-catastrophe-sized threshold, granting them the ability to develop repair enzymes.
• RNA Degradation
  • Solution: Hyper-stable yet impractical XNA which are resilient for diverse PH environments could predate fast-spoiling RNA.
• Lifespan
  • Solution 1: Early nucleic acids replicate rapidly enough to avoid decay.
  • Solution 2: Once nucleic acids exceed a certain length threshold, rapid selection for preservation enzymes may occur.
  • Solution 3: Highly stable XNA molecules could have catalyzed the RNA World.
• Reactivation
  • Solution: A pre-metabolism could create, use and extend the life of nucleic acid constituents in order to allow them to form nucleic acid polymers.
• Divalent Metal Ions
  • Solution: While indeed useful for the creation of simple organic molecules such as simple sugars, they do promote RNA degradation; however, it is likely that some forms of XNA may be immune to their effects.
• Primers
  • Solution: Self-replicating nucleic acids may not need to reside within a membrane, granting them easy access to primers, especially in a metabolic environment.
• Strand Reannealing
  • Solution: The same mechanisms which were mentioned earlier to prevent annealing, could also prevent strand reannealing.
• Spaghetti Conundrum
  • Solution: Encapsulation occurred much later in the evolutionary history of life, possibly after the evolution of selfish genetic elements, thus allowing proper precautions such as RNA replication regulation to evolve and prevent this conundrum.
• RNA Peptide World
  • Solution: Firstly, other XNA peptide worlds may predate the RNA peptide world and so too would metabolic systems, allowing better coevolution of nucleic acids and peptides that would not hinder replication.
• RNA Folding
  • Solution: RNA/XNA communalism may explain the existence of replicating unfolded nucleic acids which normally would be useless and confer no evolutionary advantage; however, in a community with folded ribozymes which cannot replicate, but have functionality, unfolded acids would have a greater evolutionary purpose.  Proto-metabolism and ribozymes could prevent hydrogen bonding of unpaired bases to water and promote hydrogen bonding to other bases.

Problem Set 5: Irreducible Membranes

• Semipermeable Membrane
  • Solution: Managed metabolic world could exist without a membrane and later evolve partial membranes which confer it with small evolutionary energy advantages, thereby spurring the development of seemingly irreducibly complex membranes as it becomes more dependent on these membranes.
• Environment Dependency
  • Solution: An organism with far less genes could be autonomous if those genes correspond to a far simpler metabolism catered to more opportunistic environments.  In a prebiotic environment with a high concentration of prebiotic molecules, an early proto-metabolism could increase its fitness by evolving to convert prebiotic molecules into organic monomers and eliminate wastes.