Several reports have described the effect of different forms of energy on gaseous mixtures of methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water-the kind of mixture that probably comprised the atmosphere of the prebiotic earth.'-3 While the formation of amino acids in such experiments has been clearly demonstrated, there is little evidence for the formation of the heterocyclic bases which are major constitu...

The poultry industry has been searching for a replacement for antibiotic growth promoters in poultry feed as public concerns over the use of antibiotics and the appearance of antibiotic resistance has become more intense. An ideal replacement would be feed amendments that could eliminate pathogens and disease while retaining economic value via improvements on body weight and feed conversion rat...

In the context of prebiotic chemistry, one of the characteristics of mixed nitrogenous-oxygenous chemistry is its propensity to give rise to highly complex reaction mixtures. There is therefore an urgent need to develop improved spectroscopic techniques if onerous chromatographic separations are to be avoided. One potential avenue is the combination of pure shift methodology, in which NMR spect...

The question of the onset of the homochirality on prebiotic Earth still remains a fundamental question in the quest for the origin of life. Recent works in this field introduce the concept of recycling, rather than the traditional open-flow system described by Frank. This approach has been criticized by Blackmond et al. They claimed that such systems are thermodynamically impossible, except in ...

The present study investigates the effects of different routes of inulin administration as prebiotic on gut microbiota and survival rate of Indian white shrimp post-larvae. Four hundred and fifty Indian white shrimp post-larvae (PL1) were stocked in nine tanks. The tanks were assigned into three treatments: feeding with inulin-treated (110 mg L(-1)) Artemia nauplii (I-T), feeding with inulin-en...

This paper is a review of our previous work on the field of possible ways of prebiotic evolution. We propose an algorithm providing sequences of model proteins with rapid folding into a given native conformation. Thermodynamical analysis shows that the increase in speed is matched by an increase in stability: the evolved sequences are much more stable in their native conformation than the initi...

The production of prebiotic galactooligosaccharides (GOS) from lactose has been widely studied whereas the synthesis of new prebiotic oligosaccharides with improved properties as those derived from lactulose is receiving an increasing interest. Understanding the mechanism of enzymatic oligosaccharides synthesis from lactulose would help to improve the quality of the products in a rational way a...

There is some evidence that early colonization of the intestine affects the composition of the intestinal microbiota after weaning. In the present study, the effect of prebiotics administered from the first day of life on fecal counts of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli were studied during and after the administration of the prebiotics. In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, explo...

The halophile environment has a number of compelling aspects with regard to the origin of structured polypeptides (i.e., proteogenesis) and, instead of a curious niche that living systems adapted into, the halophile environment is emerging as a candidate "cradle" for proteogenesis. In this viewpoint, a subsequent halophile-to-mesophile transition was a key step in early evolution. Several lines...

Primordial cells presumably combined RNAs, which functioned as catalysts and carriers of genetic information, with an encapsulating membrane of aggregated amphiphilic molecules. Major questions regarding this hypothesis include how the four bases and the sugar in RNA were selected from a mixture of prebiotic compounds and co-localized with such membranes, and how the membranes were stabilized a...