Abiogenesis as the origin of adaptive evolution. An alternative to the Oparin-Haldane model

Abiogenesis as the origin of adaptive evolution. An alternative to the Oparin-Haldane model

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Authors

Juan Rivas-Santisteban 

Abstract

The emergence of life from non-living matter remains one of the most profound unresolved questions in natural philosophy. Current paradigms largely inherit the Oparin-Haldane assumption that abiogenesis is preceded by a prolonged accumulation of traits through both nonadaptive (e.g. self-organisation) and adaptive (i.e. Natural Selection) processes. Yet this raises a legitimate question: how can adaptive evolution occur before abiogenesis? Natural selection (NS) requires both a persistent resemblance between parental and offspring characters (i.e. heredity) and a source of transmissible variation (i.e. mutation); however the emergence of these properties is itself the central problem of abiogenesis. Here, instead, I describe a spontaneous adaptation model in which heritable variation arises nonadaptively, and therefore prior to the action of NS. The Price equation, although merely a mathematical tool, can help us think about the evolvability of NS itself. NS is best understood as the systematic non-null covariance between a trait value and its fitness, a quantity that itself evolves. Prior to abiogenesis, this covariance should be effectively zero. This model defines a null expectation in which adaptiveness is absent from prebiotic systems. It would be experimentally falsified by demonstrating adaptive evolution in a system that remains independently non-living.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32942/X27P7B

Subjects

Biochemistry, Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Computational Biology, Evolution, Molecular Biology, Molecular Genetics, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Systems and Integrative Physiology Life Sciences, Systems Biology

Keywords

origins of life, nonadaptive abiogenesis, dissipative structures, Price's equation, molecular bricolage, Oparin-Haldane hypothesis, contructive neutral evolution, nonadaptive abiogenesis, dissipative structures, Price's equation, molecular bricolage, Oparin-Haldane hypothesis, contructive neutral evolution

Dates

Published: 2025-02-18 02:11

Last Updated: 2026-09-11 01:12

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License

CC-By Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Conflict of interest statement:
None

Data and Code Availability Statement:
Not applicable

Language:
English

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