Origin of Life

Essential Idea: There is an unbroken chain of life from the first cells on Earth to all cells in organisms alive today.

At SHS, Topic 1.5 is taught in the following class unit(s):

1.5.U1 Cells can only be formed by division of preexisting cells.

Discuss implications of all cells being formed from preexisting cells.

1.5.U2 The first cells must have arisen from non-living material.

Outline the four processes needed for the spontaneous origin of cells on Earth.
Outline the experiments of Miller and Urey into the origin of organic compounds.
Define polymerization, monomer and polymer.
Outline two properties of RNA that would have allowed it to play a role in the origin of life.
Outline why fatty acids were likely the primary component of the membrane of early cells.

1.5.U3 The origin of eukaryotic cells can be explained by the endosymbiotic theory.

State the endosymbiosis theory.
Outline the major events in the origin of eukaryotic cells.
Describe the evidence for the endosymbiotic theory.

1.5.A1 Evidence from Pastuer’s experiments that spontaneous generation of cells and organisms does not now occur on Earth.

Define spontaneous generation.
Describe Pasteur’s experiments about spontaneous generation.
Explain why Pasteur’s experiments did not support the idea of spontaneous generation.

1.5.NOS Testing the general principles that underline the natural world- the principles that cells only come from pre-existing cells needs to be verified.

Outline historical thinking about spontaneous generation.
Summarize the Redi experiment.
Summarize the Spallanzani experiment.
List reasons why biologists now universally accept that cells only come from preexisting cells.

In the News:

A New Clue to How Life Originated (2019-08-12)
New insights into the origin of life (2019-08-07)
Scientists discover new chemistry that may help explain the origins of cellular life (2019-07-23)
Key early steps for origin of life occur under a variety of conditions (2019-07-08)
Life thrived on Earth 3.5 billion years ago, research suggests (2019-03-08)
How biologists are creating life-like cells from scratch (2018-11-07)
The rocky road to biomolecules (2018-11-07)
Chemists find a recipe that may have jump-started life on Earth (2018-10-18)
The End of the RNA World Is Near, Biochemists Argue (2017-12-19)
The origin of life: labyrinths as crucibles of life (2015-01-27)
Ancient rocks show life could have flourished on Earth 3.2 billion years ago (2015-02-16)
Researchers may have solved origin-of-life conundrum (2015-03-16)
Building blocks for 'RNA world' made from simple ingredients (2016-05-12)
Scientists take big step toward recreating primordial 'RNA world' of 4 billion years ago (2016-08-15)
World’s Oldest Fossils Found in Greenland (2016-08-31)
Protein-like structures from the primordial soup (2016-09-12)
On the origin of life: Studying how the first biomolecule self-replicated (2016-11-02)
Oldest evidence of life on land found in 3.48 billion-year-old Australian rocks (2017-05-09)
Chemists may be zeroing in on chemical reactions that sparked the first life (2017-05-19)
Genetic Struggles Within Cells May Create New Species (2017-09-27)
'Solar-powered' sea slugs can survive in the dark (2013-11-20)
Missing link microbes may help explain how single cells became us (2015-05-06)
On the origin of eukaryotes: When cells got complex (2016-02-03)

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Topic 1.5:The Origin of Cells

In the News:

Topic 1.5:
The Origin of Cells