replied to himself — “because the D-rotating molecules are more easily
used of by the enzyme of the given type of fermentation than the L-ones”
(see Vallery-Radot, 1950).
Later on also the question arised, why only L-amino acids (see Fig. 2–
29) take part in protein construction and D-riboses (see Fig. 2–37 A) — in
the nucleic acids (D-ribose in RNA and D-2-deoxyribose in DNA). Because
of the lack of a categorical answer to this question and some exceptions to
the rule observed, the interest towards it is gradually receding.
And now let us consider the problem of the origin of life in another
aspect. Since the World Ocean is relatively boundless the whole of it could
not possibly has been engaged in the abiogenic chemical evolution of living
matter. “It is not very plausible — remarked Oparin — for the protobionts to
grow as a united whole mass. Under the influence of outer mechanical
forces (for example the wave beat) they could have been splintered just like
the splitting of emulsion drops upon shaking. At that, the greater size the
given protobiont reaches in the process of its growth, the greater are the
chances of its splitting into daughter formations. These formations to a
certain degree preserve the same organization of interaction with the
environment which was inherent in the initial protobiont since they were
simple splinters, parts of a relatively homogeneous formation in its whole
mass” (see Oparin, 1966).
It is hardly acceptable that only mechanical forces of that nature can
be the cause for the crushing of the formed mass of organic matter into
emulsion drops which would serve for the protobiont formation preceding
prokaryotes. No doubt that this is a complex physicochemical process
related to the energy potentials of chemical elements, their valency and
electron bonds which could be the subject of in-depth quantochemical
studies. No wonder the prokaryotes — bacteria and unicellular blue-green
algae which are thought to be the first representatives of living organisms
on Earth and stand at the beginning of the evolution tree (Fig. 1–2) have
formed and exist even now in the 1—10 μm order.
The coacervate drops idea belongs to the Dutch explorer Hugo
Bungenbreg de Jong (1932,1936). The term coacervation (from Latin —
gathering in piles, accumulation of colloidal solutions) was introduced by
him in the 1930s and he is considered the founder of the coacervate
hypothesis.
By mixing water solutions of gelatin and gummi arabica at certain
conditions of temperature and pH Bungerberg de Jong has obtained
strongly precipitous mixtures in which rows or groups of emulsion drops
freely drifting in the surrounding water, later fully devoid of the dissolved
polymers, have been formed of the molecules of the two components
(evenly distributed in the beginning). These formations visible under the
microscope he had called coacervate drops.