OoL digest — March 4 edition

This week we have 21 new papers on the origin of life. Enjoy!

Astrobiology

Transdisciplinary contributions in undergraduate university students through a stratospheric balloon project with an astrobiological focus
Chon-Torres et al. – International Journal of Astrobiology

QRIS: A Quantitative Reflectance Imaging System for the Pristine Sample of Asteroid Bennu
Fulford et al. – preprint

Atmospheric formaldehyde production on early Mars leading to a potential formation of bio-important molecules
Koyama et al. – Scientific Reports

Ultraviolet and Chromospheric activity and Habitability of M stars
Li et al. – preprint

A light sail astrobiology precursor mission to Enceladus and Europa
Lingam et al. – Acta Astronautica

New global area estimates for coral reefs from high-resolution mapping
Lyons et al. – Cell Reports Sustainability

Astronomical and Cosmochemical Aspects of the Life Origin Problem
Marov – Astronomy Reports

Earth as an Exoplanet. III. Using Empirical Thermal Emission Spectra as an Input for Atmospheric Retrieval of an Earth-twin Exoplanet
Mettler et al. – The Astrophysical Journal


Biochemistry

Symmetry breaking and chiral amplification in prebiotic ligation reactions
Deng et al. – Nature

Encyclopedia of Family A DNA Polymerases Localized in Organelles: Evolutionary Contribution of Bacteria Including the Proto-Mitochondrion
Harada et al. – Molecular Biology and Evolution

The Origins of ATP Dependence in Biological Nitrogen Fixation
Harris et al. – preprint

A prebiotic Krebs cycle analog generates amino acids with H2 and NH3 over nickel
Kaur et al. – Chem

To unravel the origin of life, treat findings as pieces of a bigger puzzle
Lane et al. – Nature

Experimentally modeling the emergence of prebiotically plausible phospholipid vesicles
Pulletikurti et al. – Chem

Evidence of Heritability in Prebiotically Realistic Membrane-Bound Systems
Sokolskyi et al. – Life


Microbiology

Metagenomics untangles potential adaptations of Antarctic endolithic bacteria at the fringe of habitability
Coleine et al. – Science of The Total Environment

Extracellular vesicle formation in Euryarchaeota is driven by a small GTPase
Mills et al. – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Genome-scale metabolic modelling of extremophiles and its applications in astrobiological environments
Noirungsee et al. – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Connecting molecular biomarkers, mineralogical composition, and microbial diversity from Mars analog lava tubes
Palma et al. – Science of The Total Environment


Philosophy

Evolution at the Origins of Life?
Schoenmakers et al. – Life


Planetary sciences

Trojan Exoplanets
Robutel et al. – preprint