Most experimental work on the origin of life has focused on either characterizing the chemical synthesis of particular biochemicals and their precursors or on designing simple chemical systems that manifest life-like properties such as self-propagation or adaptive evolution. Here we propose a new class of experiments, analogous to artificial ecosystem selection, where we select for spontaneously forming self-propagating chemical assemblages in the lab and then seek evidence of a response to that selection as a key indicator that life-like chemical systems have arisen. Since surfaces and surface metabolism likely played an important role in the origin of life, a key experimental challenge is to find conditions that foster nucleation and spread of chemical consortia on surfaces. We propose high-throughput screening of a diverse set of conditions in order to identify combinations of "food," energy sources, and mineral surfaces that foster the emergence of surface-associated chemical consortia that are capable of adaptive evolution. Identification of such systems would greatly advance our understanding of the emergence of self-propagating entities and the onset of adaptive evolution during the origin of life.

中文翻译：

---

在实验室中生成可演化化学系统的实验框架。

关于生命起源的大多数实验工作都集中在表征特定生物化学物质及其前体的化学合成或设计简单的化学系统上，这些系统表现出类似生命的特性，例如自我传播或适应性进化。在这里，我们提出了类似于人工生态系统选择的一类新实验，我们选择在实验室中自发形成自蔓延的化学组合，然后寻找对这种选择有反应的证据，以此作为栩栩如生的化学系统具有出现了。由于表面和表面代谢可能在生命起源中起着重要作用，因此一项关键的实验挑战是找到促进化学物质团聚在表面成核和扩散的条件。我们建议对各种条件进行高通量筛选，以识别“食物”，能源和矿物表面的组合，以促进能够适应进化的与表面相关的化学联合体的出现。识别此类系统将极大地增进我们对自我传播实体的出现以及生命起源期间适应性进化的开始的理解。