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How did life begin? One key ingredient is coming into view A Nobel-prizewinning scientist’s team has taken a big step forward in its quest to reconstruct an early-Earth RNA capable of building proteins. Amber Dance, Nature News, February 28, 2023 Ancient protein study reveals how natural selection predates life itself By Michael Irving, News Atlas, February 28, 2023 Ancient protein study reveals how natural selection predates life itself John Hopkins University, February 28, 2023 One paper is: Makarov, M., Sanchez Rocha, A.C., Krystufek, R., Cherepashuk, I., Dzmitruk, V., Charnavets, T., Faustino, A.M., Lebl, M., Fujishima, K., Fried, S.D. and Hlouchova, K., 2022. Early selection of the amino acid alphabet was adaptively shaped by biophysical constraints of foldability. Jounral of the American Chemical Society. Abstract of paywalled paper PDF of Preprint Yours, Paul H.

Molecular analysis reveals the oldest Denisovan fossils yet by Max Planck Society, PhyOrg, November 30, 2021 The paper is: Brown, S., Massilani, D., Kozlikin, M.B., Shunkov, M.V., Derevianko, A.P., Stoessel, A., Jope-Street, B., Meyer, M., Kelso, J., Pääbo, S. and Higham, T., 2021. The earliest Denisovans and their cultural adaptation. Nature Ecology & Evolution, pp.1-8. Yours, Paul H.

A New Clue to How Life Originated A long-standing mystery about early cells has a solution— and it’s a rather magical one. Ed Young, The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/08/interlocking-puzzle-allowed-life-emerge/595945/ Did Amino Acids Stabilize Prebiotic Membranes? A possible solution to a long-standing question about early cells Astrobiology at NASA https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/solving-a-long-standing-origin-of-life-puzzle/ First cells may have emerged because building blocks of proteins stabilized membranes, University of Washington, August 12, 2019 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190812155502.htm The paper is: Caitlin E. Cornell, Roy A. Black, Mengjun Xue, Helen E. Litz, Andrew Ramsay, Moshe Gordon, Alexander Mileant, Zachary R. Cohen, James A. Williams, Kelly K. Lee, Gary P. Drobny, and Sarah L. Keller. Prebiotic amino acids bind to and stabilize prebiotic fatty acid membranes. PNAS, 2019 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1900275116 https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/08/06/1900275116 Yours, Paul H.

Could proteins found in dinosaur fossils come from microbes? A new study continues the debate over whether or not scientists have discovered fragments of actual dino proteins by Laura Howes, Chemical & Engineering News https://cen.acs.org/analytical-chemistry/art-&-artifacts/proteins-found-dinosaur-fossils-come-from-microbes/97/i27 Evan T Saitta, Renxing Liang, Maggie CY Lau, Caleb M Brown, Nicholas R Longrich, Thomas G Kaye, Ben J Novak, Steven L Salzberg, and Mark A Norell. 2019. Cretaceous dinosaur bone contains recent organic material and provides an environment conducive to microbial communities. eLife https://elifesciences.org/articles/46205 Raphael Eisenhofer and Alan Cooper. 2019. Fossils: A new home for microbes. eLife https://elifesciences.org/articles/48493 An opposing open access paper is: Schweitzer, M.H., Schroeter, E.R., Cleland, T.P. and Zheng, W., 2019. Paleoproteomics of Mesozoic dinosaurs and other Mesozoic fossils. Proteomics, p.1800251. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pmic.201800251 Yours, Paul H.

The whole tooth: New method to find biological sex from a single tooth, University of California - Davis, November 12, 2018 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181112095931.htm the paper is: Parker, G.J., Yip, J.M., Eerkens, J.W., Salemi, M., Durbin-Johnson, B., Kiesow, C., Haas, R., Buikstra, J.E., Klaus, H., Regan, L.A. and Rocke, D.M., 2018. sex estimation using sexually dimorphic amelogenin protein fragments in human enamel. Journal of Archaeological Science. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440318302498?via%3Dihub Happy New Year, Paul H.