Book Argues Symbiosis Key to Understanding Life's Origins

Rowan Hooper's book Togetherness presents symbiosis as central to the development of complex life on Earth. The author states that lichens and corals illustrate unions between different species, and argues that all plants rely on symbiosis to grow and produce food.

Hooper writes that emphasis on competition has dominated evolutionary explanations since before Charles Darwin. The book connects growing recognition of symbiosis to research on how life began.

Current studies focus on deep-sea hydrothermal vents as possible sites where life originated. Biochemist Nick Lane at University College London states that the internal pores of the vents have cell-like structures with electrically charged catalytic surfaces. Lane's laboratory reproduces conditions thought to exist on early Earth.

Work by Bill Martin at the University of Düsseldorf indicates that the acetyl-coenzyme A pathway appeared before the enzymes and genes that now support it. Lane states that metabolic reactions occur as spontaneous chemistry rather than requiring genetic encoding.

The book notes that nucleotide ingredients for RNA and DNA can form spontaneously under certain conditions. Hooper writes that these findings reshape definitions of life and inform searches for life elsewhere.