Mineral guided molecular enrichment: An interfacial driving force for protocell emergence on early Earth

Abstract

The emergence of protocells from a dilute prebiotic environment is a fundamental challenge in origins-of-life research. which requires the simultaneous overcoming of molecular dilution, the establishment of metabolic cycles and the formation of selectively permeable compartments. But where and how such critical conditions are satisfied is very obscure and debated. We demonstrate, using contemporary model proteins and enzymatic systems, that mineral surfaces can facilitate the co-adsorption and spatial arrangement of nucleotides, proteins, and lipids into locally enriched, protocell-like assemblies under the examined laboratory conditions. We showed that geochemically relevant minerals efficiently co-adsorb and colocalize diverse biomolecules, creating crowded interfacial microenvironments that support enzyme cascades with substrate channeling-like behavior. Subsequently, these mineral-protein complexes template the assembly of lipid membranes, leading to the formation of discrete compartments that maintain metabolic activity while permitting molecular exchange. This mineral-guided surface enrichment (MSE) mechanism integrates key aspects of "metabolism-first" and "membrane-first" scenarios into a unified pathway, reconciling long-standing conceptual divides in prebiotic chemistry. Our findings establish mineral interfaces as active organizers of protocell emergence, offering a geochemically plausible framework for the origin of cellular life.