Abstract
The goal of this paper is to explain the evolution of life through the evolution of cellular and supra-cellular closures, two distinct ways of strict delimitation against the surroundings. Such closures are a necessary precondition of organisation, semiosis, and agency. We argue that in addition to the basic, first-order, cellular closures, which have been in existence without interruption since the dawn of life, there also exist second-order closures (cell communities), which are dynamic and often formed ad hoc. Moreover, a living entity may belong simultaneously to different kinds of such second-order closures. It is these second-order closures which organise cellular (and higher-order) communities and form the core of the bonds that hold the biosphere together. In second-order closures, there exist countless crisscrossing pathways leading to manifold interpretations of particular situations. We provide examples of such relationships and point to an elaborate network connecting all denizens of the biosphere.
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Notes
According to a model we believe to be likely, such agents may have evolved in the tiny cavities of water-percolated rocks or at the bottom of oceans (Markoš & Švorcová, 2019) through a process of serpentinization, where Fe/Mg silicates gave rise to hydrogen and methane (Martin & Russell, 2007; Russell et al., 2015; for a review, see Sojo et al., 2016). In this model, the cold and acidic oceanic water (app. 10 °C and pH 5.5) interaced with alkaline vents, which rose from below bringing with them sulphides of various metals, silicates, and ion hydroxides. These substances subsequently precipitated and formed a porous mineral membrane. Such porous membranes (i) separated the anoxic oceanic waters from waters rising from below; (ii) their surfaces enabled the catalysis of organic syntheses and, most importantly, (iii) they separated two environments with different pH, thus creating an electrochemical potential (about one volt) and the first primitive closure with an energy source. This energy source could have enabled certain key metabolic reactions, such as the synthesis of pyrophosphate (an equivalent of ATP in extant cells; for more detailed information and other models of the evolution of life, see Markoš and Švorcová 2019). To conclude, we believe that with the emergence of life, the emergence of closure had to go hand in hand together with the emergence of the first metabolic syntheses.
Secondary, or even tertiary, semiautonomous organelles can emerge in different eukaryotic lineages by capturing algae, which contain primary chloroplasts (e.g., Euglena), or even lifeforms already equipped by such secondary chloroplasts (e.g., Dinophlagellates).
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Supported by the Czech Science Foundation, grant No. 20-16633 S, recipient Jana Švorcová. We are grateful to Anna Pilátová for her proofreading and editing.
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Švorcová, J., Markoš, A. Closures as a Precondition of Life, Agency, and Semiosis. Biosemiotics 16, 45–59 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-023-09520-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-023-09520-3