The origin of life: the submarine alkaline vent theory at 30

The current issue of Interface Focus is all about the submarine alkaline vent theory (SAVT) for the origin of life. It features a really nice introduction to the topic by Julian Cartwright and Mike Russell as well as 12 very interesting research articles. All of the work stems from a meeting that was held earlier this year in Granada to celebrate Mike’s 80th birthday and 30 years of the SAVT. 

The Lane Lab contributed two research articles to this issue including one in which I was the lead author. This paper is the culmination of some really interesting discussions between Nick and myself followed by some long hours in the lab trying to follow up on our ideas. We shed some light on the potential for protocell membranes to contain both fatty acids and isoprenoids, possible precursors to bacterial and archaeal membrane lipids respectively. We look at the some of the possible pros and cons of this and how these may have contributed to an early lipid divide! There is a lot more to do on this topic and hopefully this will be the first of several publications probing this aspect of protocell membranes more deeply.

See the whole issue here, check out the protocell paper here, and read our paper on CO2 reduction here!