The Origin of Life in the Early Continental Crust: A Comprehensive Model

Continental rift zones on the early Earth provided essential conditions for the emergence of the first cells. These conditions included an abundant supply of raw materials, cyclic fluctuations in pressure and temperature over millions of years, and transitions of gases between supercritical and subcritical phases. While evidence supports vesicle formation and the chemical evolution of peptides, the mechanism by which information was stored remains unresolved. This study pro-poses a model illustrating how interactions among organic molecules may have enabled the encoding of amino acid sequences in RNA. The model highlights the interplay between three key molecular components: a proto-tRNA, the vesicle membrane, and short peptides. The vesicle membrane acted as a reservoir for hydrophobic amino acids and facilitated their attachment to proto-tRNA. As a single strand, proto-tRNA also served as proto-mRNA, enabling it to be read by charged tRNAs. Through the replication of this information and the assembly of RNA strands, the first catalytically active peptides could form, thereby enhancing the long-term sta-bility of vesicles. This model further outlines how these vesicles may have evolved into the ear-liest cells, with enzymes and larger RNA molecules giving rise to tRNA and ribosomal struc-tures. Shearing forces may have facilitated the first cellular divisions, representing a pre-LUCA stage.