Major transitions in evolution linked to thermal gradients above hydrothermal vents
The emergence of the main divisions of today's life: (1) unicellular prokaryotes, (2) unicellular eukaryotes, (3) multicellular eukaryotes, and (4) metazoans, are examples of the--still unexplained--major transitions in evolution. Regarding the origin of life, I have proposed that primordial life functioned as heat engine (thermosynthesis) while thermally cycled in convecting volcanic hot springs. Here I argue for a role of thermal gradients above submarine hydrothermal vents (SHV) in several major transitions. The last decade has witnessed the emergence of phononics, a novel discipline in physics based on controlled heat transport in thermal gradients. It builds thermal analogs to electronic devices: the thermal diode, the thermal transistor, the thermal switch, the thermal amplifier, the thermal memory--the thermal computer has been proposed. Encouraged by (1) the many similarities between microtubules (MT) and carbon nanotubes, which have a very high thermal conductivity, and (2) the recent discovery of a silk protein which also has a very high thermal conductivity, I combine and extend the mentioned ideas, and propose the general conjecture that several major transitions of evolution were effected by thermal processes, with four additional partial conjectures: (1) The first organisms used heat engines during thermosynthesis in convection cells; (2) The first eukaryotic cells used MT during thermosynthesis in the thermal gradient above SHV; (3) The first metazoans used transport of water or in water during thermosynthesis above SHV under an ice-covered ocean during the Gaskiers Snowball Earth; and (4) The first mammalian brain used a thermal machinery based on thermal gradients in or across the cortex. When experimentally proven these conjectures, which are testable by the methods of synthetic biology, would significantly enhance our understanding of life.