1. Compositional heterogeneity of prebiotic soup:
1.1 Heterogeneity of prebiotic membranes
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Heterogeneity in prebiotic membranes from existing diverse single chain amphiphiles or arising from reactions of these amphiphiles with other prebiotic molecules such as amino acids have been reported.
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It was found that in both the cases the presence of diverse membrane constituents helps in increasing the tolerance of membrane to various prebiotic environmental stress such as pH.
1.2. Implications for early reactions and molecular evolution RNA and pre-RNA Worlds
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A continued focus in the lab has been on delineating the possible sequence of events that led to the origin of a putative RNA World; a time when RNA facilitated both information processing and catalytic activity.
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We are also characterizing plausible and novel and non-canonical pre-RNA World molecules that could have resulted in the formation of primitive informational molecules, prior to the emergence of an RNA World.
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The influence of co-solutes on the on reactions that led RNA's emergence as informational polymer is studied by quantifying their influence on the rate of non-enzymatic template dependent RNA replication.
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Feasibility of these reactions in realistic environments in the form of hot spring/high altitude lake water samples from Astrobiologically-relevant environments are also studies to help understand prebiotic relavance of these reactions.
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Recently we have also demonstrated cross-catalytic effect between amino acids and activated nucleotides leading to increase in their individual oligomerisation rates.
2. Prebiotic compartment systems and early amphiphilic landscapes
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Our research involves characterisation of single chain amphiphiles to delineate moieties and combinations thereof that would have resulted in robust protocells under early Earth conditions.
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This involves scanning different types of natural and non-natural amphiphiles arising due to molecular heterogeneity of prebiotic earth. These are also tested for their robustness under various physiochemical influences including, pH, temperature and wet-dry cycles. Further their formation in Astrobiologically relevant analogue environments (e.g. Ladakh) are also studied.
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We also apply the knowledge about robustness and tunability of such systems into making cargo delivery systems in model organisms such as Drosophila Melanogaster
3. Evolving a framework for the emergence and evolution of protoenzymes on the early Earth.
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We are characterizing the emergence and early evolution of minimal early enzymes (e.g. protoporphyrins). This is allowing for the description a molecular evolution framework that could shed light on how some of the earliest enzymes emerged.
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We are using protometalloporphyrins as a means to analyze what early Earth regimes and components would have played a vital role in shaping their evolution.