The systems view on life and its emergence from complex chemistry has remarkably increased the scientific attention on metabolism in the last two decades. However, during this time there has not been much theoretical discussion on what constitutes a metabolism and what role it actually played in biogenesis. A critical and updated review on the topic is here offered, including some references to classical models from last century, but focusing more on current and future research. Metabolism is considered as intrinsically related to the living but not necessarily equivalent to it. More precisely, the idea of “minimal metabolism”, in contrast to previous, top-down conceptions, is formulated as a heuristic construct, halfway between chemistry and biology. Thus, rather than providing a complete or final characterization of metabolism, our aim is to encourage further investigations on it, particularly in the context of life's origin, for which some concrete methodological suggestions are provided. Also see the video abstract here: https://youtu.be/DP7VMKk2qpA

中文翻译：

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“最小代谢”：研究生物系统起源和性质的关键概念

在过去的二十年里，关于生命及其从复杂化学中出现的系统观点显着增加了对新陈代谢的科学关注。然而，在此期间，关于什么构成新陈代谢以及它在生物发生中实际发挥的作用，并没有太多的理论讨论。这里提供了对该主题的批判性和最新评论，包括对上世纪经典模型的一些参考，但更多地关注当前和未来的研究。新陈代谢被认为与生活有内在联系，但不一定等同于生活。更准确地说，与以前的自上而下的概念相比，“最小代谢”的概念被表述为一种启发式结构，介于化学和生物学之间。因此，与其提供新陈代谢的完整或最终特征，我们的目标是鼓励对它进行进一步的研究，特别是在生命起源的背景下，并为此提供了一些具体的方法论建议。另请参阅此处的视频摘要：https://youtu.be/DP7VMKk2qpA