Natalia Mrnjavac

“Such parallel inventions could have paved the way to the independent emergence of free-living bacteria and archaea.”

Natalia Mrnjavac · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-05

Mrnjavac suggests parallel enzyme inventions could have enabled the independent emergence of free-living bacteria and archaea.

“We would see two very different kinds of cells emerging, pioneer bacteria and pioneer archaea, making their first attempts at life outside the confines of a hydrothermal vent,”

Natalia Mrnjavac · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-05

Mrnjavac describes what one would see going back 4 billion years to the emergence of the first cells.

“We can see cases where the ancestors of bacteria and archaea independently evolved structurally distinct enzymes to catalyze the same essential metabolic reaction,”

Natalia Mrnjavac · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-05

Mrnjavac notes that ancestors of bacteria and archaea independently evolved structurally distinct enzymes for the same metabolic reaction.