Environmental Conditions for the Formation of Marigranules and Kinetic Studies on the Formation

Abstract

We found that higly organized particles, “marigranules”, were produced from glycine and acidic, basic, and aromatic amino acids in a modified sea medium. The marigranules had membrane-like structures and were packed with polymers having molecular weights of 1,800, 6,800, 15,000, and 82,000 daltons. It is considered that these marigranules represent a new type of protocell-like structures that were present on primitive earth. Here we described the environmental conditions for the formation of marigranules and present kinetic studies made on them. Among amino acids, tryptophan was an essential amino acid for the formation of marigranules and among the metal components of modified sea medium, cupric ion was absolutely necessary for the formation of marigranules. The form of marigranules was dependent on temperature and time. The time course for the formation of these marigranules was oscillatory.