The Emergence of Bioenergetics: The Formation of a Gluconeogenesis System and Reductive Pentose Phosphate Pathway of CO2 Fixation in Ancient Hydrothermal Systems

The origin of phosphorus metabolism is one of the central problems in the context of the emergence of life on Earth. It has been shown that the C–H–O system can be transformed into a fourcomponent C–H–O–P system with the formation of a gluconeogenesis path in a possible Archean hydrothermal condition under the influence of a phosphorus chemical potential. This system became the energy supply basis for protometabolism, and facilitated the formation of a new CO2 fixation cycle (the reductive pentose phosphate pathway). The modular design of central metabolism in the C–H–O–P system is derived from the parageneses (associations) of certain substances, and the emerging modules in turn associate with each other in certain physical and chemical hydrothermal conditions. The assembly of malate, oxaloacetate, pyruvate, and phosphoenolpyruvate is a reversible "turnstile like" mechanism with a switching of reaction direction that determines the trend of specific metabolic systems development.