Fundamental molecules of life are pigments which arose and co-evolved as a response to the thermodynamic imperative of dissipating the prevailing solar spectrum

Michaelian, K.; Simeonov, A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4913-2015

Articles | Volume 12, issue 16

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4913-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4913-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 16

Research article

|

19 Aug 2015

Research article |

| 19 Aug 2015

Fundamental molecules of life are pigments which arose and co-evolved as a response to the thermodynamic imperative of dissipating the prevailing solar spectrum

K. Michaelian and A. Simeonov

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Final revised paper (published on 19 Aug 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 02 Feb 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

SC C712: 'Comment on the manuscript Manuscript “Fundamental molecules of life are pigments which arose and evolved to dissipate the solar spectrum” by Karo Michaelian and Aleksandar Simeonov', Marko Vitas, 23 Mar 2015
- AC C1619: 'Reply to Short Comment by Marko Vitas', Karo Michaelian, 24 Apr 2015
SC C1162: 'Comments on K. Michaelian and A. Simeonov discussion paper (part 1)', Frank Veroustraete, 11 Apr 2015
- SC C1904: 'Reply to short comment by Frank Veroustraete', Aleksandar Simeonov, 06 May 2015
RC C1883: 'Referee comment', Kees Hulsman, 06 May 2015
- AC C2383: 'Reply to Referee Comment by Kees Hulsman', Karo Michaelian, 23 May 2015
RC C2924: 'RC; Marko Vitas', Marko Vitas, 18 Jun 2015
- AC C3015: 'Reply to Referee Comment by Marko Vitas', Karo Michaelian, 23 Jun 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (17 Jul 2015) by Katja Fennel

AR by Karo Michaelian on behalf of the Authors (28 Jul 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (28 Jul 2015) by Katja Fennel

AR by Karo Michaelian on behalf of the Authors (02 Aug 2015) Manuscript

Short summary

We show that the fundamental molecules of life (those common to all three domains of life: Archaea, Bacteria, Eukaryota), including nucleotides, amino acids, enzyme cofactors, and porphyrin agglomerates, absorb light strongly from 230 to 280nm (in the UV-C) and have chemical affinity to RNA and DNA. This supports the "thermodynamic dissipation theory for the origin of life", which suggests that life arose and evolved as a response to dissipating the prevailing Archaean UV-C sunlight into heat.