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Abstract EANA2025-23


Prebiotic Gels as the Cradle of Life

 

Kuhan Chandru (1,3, 8) Ramona Khanum (1), Nirmell Satthiyasilan (1), Navaniswaran Tharumen(1)*, Terence P. Kee (2), Christian Mayer (3), P Susthitha Menon (4), and Tony, Z. Jia (5,6,7),
(1) Space Science Center (ANGKASA), Institute of Climate Change, National University of Malaysia, Selangor, 43600 Malaysia (2)School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK (3)Institute of Physical Chemistry, CENIDE, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45141 Essen, Germany (4)Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi Selangor, Malaysia (5)Office of Research and Academia-Government-Community Collaboration, Hiroshima University, 1-1-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8524, Japan (6)Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, 600 1st Ave, Floor 1, Seattle, WA 98104, USA (7)Earth-Life Science Institute, Institute of Science Tokyo, 2-12-1-IE-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan (8)Polymer Research Center (PORCE), Faculty of Science and Technology, National University of Malaysia, Selangor, 43600 Malaysia


We propose a "prebiotic gel-first" hypothesis, suggesting that the origin of life (OoL) could have potentially emerged within surface-attached gel matrices. Using modern microbial biofilms as a framing device, and argue that prebiotic gels could have provided the means for localized environments conducive to chemical complexification and evolutionary potential well before cellularization.

Such prebiotic gels may have allowed primitive chemical systems to overcome key barriers in prebiotic chemistry by enabling molecular concentration, selective retention, reaction efficiency, and environmental buffering. Furthermore, we explore how gel matrices could have supported proto-metabolic activity through redox chemistry, light-driven processes, chemo-mechanical coupling—and proto-replication via autocatalytic networks or template-directed synthesis.

We then briefly extend this model into the domain of extraterrestrial life detection, proposing the potential existence of “Xeno-films”, i.e., alien biofilm-like structures composed of non-terrestrial (or with some terrestrial) building blocks.