Abu Dhabi Researchers Discover Enzyme That May Explain Why Life Began

The lab is located on Saadiyat Island, which is close to the long, pale shoreline where the Gulf air lingers long after sunset and the white curves of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. But inside, it feels more like a physics workshop than a biology department. Under the optical tables, cables coil. Lenses flicker with lasers. Scientists lean over microscopes to observe how molecules behave in ways that were unthinkable just a generation ago. Here, researchers are investigating an old and unsettling theory: that the genesis of life might have been the result of basic chemical choreography regulated by enzyme-like activity.

The Life Molecules and Materials Lab focuses on the self-organization of biomolecules, including lipids forming compartments that resemble primitive cells, proteins folding, and RNA assembling. The group investigates how molecules group together in crowded, cytoplasmic-like environments using high-resolution microscopy and single-molecule optical tweezers. Real-time observation of these interactions suggests that complex machinery may not have been necessary for the first steps of life. Rather, order might have arisen as a result of chemistry and physics encouraging molecules to cooperate.

How RNA and amino acids started cooperating is one of biology’s oldest mysteries, and it is related to the enzyme-like behavior that is currently attracting attention. Life’s tasks are carried out by proteins, but they are guided by RNA. Origin-of-life theories have long been troubled by that circular dependency. Amino acids may bind to RNA via straightforward chemical pathways involving thioesters, which are energy-rich substances essential to contemporary metabolism, according to recent experiments that mimic early Earth conditions. These reactions might have been sped up by enzyme-like catalysts, assisting early molecular systems in making the shift from haphazard chemistry to systematic synthesis.

Researchers have seen how confinement and curvature affect organization by observing how molecular assemblies form in artificial membrane compartments. These microscopic structures, which are barely perceptible even with sophisticated optics, suggest that molecules may have been concentrated at early cellular boundaries, improving reaction efficiency. The similarities to tidal pools or mineral pores that were thought to exist in early Earth scenarios—where chemistry might have developed in protected microenvironments as opposed to open oceans—are difficult to overlook.

The ancient catalysts known as nitrogenase enzymes, which transform atmospheric nitrogen into forms that are useful to biology, are also gaining attention. Synthetic biology research on reconstructed ancestral nitrogenases indicates that early forms might have operated in drastically different atmospheric conditions. If nitrogen-fixing enzyme systems had developed earlier, they might have provided the reactive nitrogen required to create amino acids and nucleotides, subtly allowing life to flourish.

But uncertainty looms over the work like coastal humidity. Although the observed reactions are believable, this does not equate to proof. The chemistry of the early Earth was disorganized, disorderly, and impacted by factors that are impossible to fully replicate in a lab. Some scientists are still wary, claiming that it will take a huge leap to get from chemical reactions to self-replicating life.

The research has applications beyond origin theories. Designing biomimetic materials and anti-fouling hydrogels is being guided by an understanding of molecular self-organization. Agriculture in areas with fertilizer shortages may change as a result of nitrogenase discoveries. Additionally, NASA-funded partnerships allude to a completely new frontier: the cultivation of food on Mars, where microbial resilience and nitrogen chemistry will be more important than sophisticated theories.

The size of the question seems out of proportion to the equipment inside the lab as I stand outside at dusk, with campus lights bouncing off polished stone. The light-based tweezers. compartments that are artificial. Silently, molecules are assembling and disassembling. Scientists are attempting to paint a picture of how inert matter may have entered biology from these tiny movements.

Whether the origin of life can be explained by a single enzyme or reaction pathway is still up for debate. The response is more likely to be complex and lacking. However, as these experiments progress, there’s a subtle sense that the line separating life and chemistry is not as clear-cut as it once appeared to be, and may even be simpler to traverse.