Abstract:
The role of evolutionary theory at the origin of life is an extensively debated topic. The origin and early development of life is usually separated into a prebiotic phase and a protocellular phase, ultimately leading to the Last Universal Common Ancestor. Most likely, the Last Universal Common Ancestor was subject to Darwinian evolution, but the question remains to what extent Darwinian evolution applies to the prebiotic and protocellular phases. In this review, we reflect on the current status of evolutionary theory in origins of life research by bringing together philosophy of science, evolutionary biology, and empirical research in the origins field. We explore the various ways in which evolutionary theory has been extended beyond biology; we look at how these extensions apply to the prebiotic development of (proto)metabolism; and we investigate how the terminology from evolutionary theory is currently being employed in state-of-the-art origins of life research. In doing so, we identify some of the current obstacles to an evolutionary account of the origins of life, as well as open up new avenues of research.
摘要:
进化论在生命起源中的作用是一个广泛争论的话题。生命的起源和早期发育通常分为益生元阶段和原细胞阶段,最终导致最后一个普遍的共同祖先。最有可能的是,最后的共同祖先受到达尔文进化论的影响,但问题仍然是达尔文进化论在多大程度上适用于益生元和原细胞阶段。在这次审查中,我们通过汇集科学哲学来反思生命起源研究中进化论的现状,进化生物学,和起源领域的实证研究。我们探索了进化论扩展到生物学之外的各种方式;我们研究了这些扩展如何适用于(原)代谢的益生元发育;我们研究了进化论中的术语目前如何用于生命研究的最新起源。在这样做的时候,我们确定了目前对生命起源的进化描述的一些障碍,并开辟了新的研究途径。