ALEKSANDR OPARIN: BIOGRAPHY, THEORY AND OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

Aleksandr Oparin (1894–1980) was a Russian biologist and biochemist noted for his contributions to the theory of the origin of life on Earth and, in particular, to the so-called "primordial soup" theory of evolution from molecules carbon.

After the exhaustive development of his theories about the origin of the first living organisms, a number of later experiments were carried out that served to explain the evolutionary theories that remain to this day.

Aleksandr Oparin (right) and Principal Investigator Andrei Kursanov in the Enzymology Laboratory, 1938.

Oparin was the first to expose the existence of the first living beings - prior to cells - which he called "coacervates". On the other hand, he also devoted great efforts to enzymology and helped develop foundations of industrial biochemistry in the Soviet Union.

Although at first his theories were not entirely accepted by the scientists of the time, the experiments of later years confirm many of his hypotheses as legitimate. Aleksandr Oparin received numerous awards for his work and is known for being "the Darwin of the 20th century."

Biography

Stamp issuing authority - "Marka" Publishing & Trading Center., via Wikimedia Commons

Early life and early studies

Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin was born on March 2, 1894, in Uglich, a city located near Moscow, Russia. He was the youngest son of Ivan Dmitrievich Oparin and Aleksandra Aleksandrovna, after Dmitrii and Aleksandr, his brothers.

In his hometown there was no secondary school, which is why his family had to move to Moscow when Aleksandr was 9 years old. Almost finishing high school, he collected his first herbarium and became interested in the theory of evolution of the English naturalist Charles Darwin.

He began to study plant physiology at the Moscow State University where he gradually became involved in Darwin's theories. His approach to the theories of English was thanks to the publications of the Russian professor Kliment Timiriázev.

Timiriazev had been one of the strongest defenders of Darwin's theory of evolution, for the Russian had met the Englishman in person through his work on plant physiology. Finally Aleksandr Oparin earned his undergraduate degree in 1917.

In 1918, he requested to be sent to Geneva to work with the Russian biochemist Alexei Bach, specifically with the chemical theories of plants. Oparin made a significant contribution to Bach's research and practical industrial experience. In addition, he held other positions under the direction of Bach.

Beginning of his career

In the years 1922 and 1924 he began to develop his first hypotheses about the origin of life, which consisted in the development of the chemical evolution of carbon molecules in a primitive broth.

Such theories were presented in his book The Origin of Life, where he explains in a very simple way what the formation and evolution of the first living organisms was for him.

Later, in 1925, he was allowed to teach his own course, Chemical Bases of Living Processes, at Moscow University. From 1927 to 1934, Oparin worked at the Central Institute of the Sugar Industry in Moscow as the assistant director and as head of the biochemical laboratory.

Parallel to his performance in industry, he taught technical biochemistry classes at an institute of chemical technology located in Moscow and at the Institute of Grain and Flour. During those years, she conducted research related to the biochemistry of tea, sugar, flour, and grains.

Although Oparin studied and taught various courses at Moscow University for several years, he never obtained a graduate degree; However, in 1934, the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union awarded him a doctorate in biological sciences without having defended the thesis.

AN Bach Institute of Biochemistry

After his doctorate, Oparin continued to work alongside Bach. Despite the financial difficulties of the time, the Soviet government opened a biochemical institute in Moscow in 1935, assisted by Bach and Oparin. His definitive work on "the origin of life" was finally published in 1936.

Bach served as Academician – Secretary of the Chemical Sciences Division within the institution, while Oparin was elected to the Mathematical and Natural Sciences Division in 1939.

After Bach's death in 1946, the institute was renamed the AN Bach Institute of Biochemistry and Oparin was appointed director. That same year, Oparin was awarded academy membership in the division of biochemical sciences.

Politics and science

Between the 1940s and 1950s, he supported the theories of the Russian agronomist Trofim Lysenko, which still remains a question mark, as he had supported his proposal in opposition to genetics. Lysenko defended the position of the French naturalist Jean-Batiste Lamarck, who suggested the inheritance of acquired characters.

Apart from their scientific works in parallel, both adhered to the line of the Communist Party in all their affairs without being active members of the party. Both scientists exerted a strong influence on Soviet biology during the years of the presidency of Joseph Stalin.

Both Oparin and Lysenko were rewarded with high political office; however, they were losing influence in Soviet science. The reasons why Oparin supported certain of Lysenko's theories are thought to have been due to his political stance.

Oparin began to defend dialectical materialism more strongly, an approach with postulates of Karl Marx linked to communism that was present in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.

By applying his dialectical laws, Oparin became hostile to genetics, denying the existence of genes, viruses and nucleic acids in the origin and evolution of life.

Last years

In 1957, Oparin organized the first international meeting on the origin of life in Moscow, repeating it in 1963 and a few years later. Later, he was named a hero of socialist labor in 1969 and in 1970 he was elected president of the International Society for the Study of the Origins of Life.

In 1974, he was awarded the Lenin Prize and the Lomonosov Gold Medal in 1979 for his outstanding achievements in the area of ​​biochemistry. On the other hand, he also received the highest decoration awarded by the Soviet Union.

Aleksandr Oparin continued with the direction of the AN Bach Institute of Biochemistry until the day of his death. His health gradually deteriorated; coupled with obesity and increasing deafness, she died on April 21, 1980, apparently of a heart attack, just days after she was denied permission to attend a meeting in Israel.

Theory of the origin of life

Theory of the primordial broth

After the rejection of the theory of spontaneous generation, in the middle of the 20th century the questions about the origin of life began again. In 1922, Aleksandr Oparin first postulated his theory of primordial organisms.

Oparin started from the theory of abiogenesis, which defends the emergence of life through non-living, inert matter or through organic compounds such as carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen.

The Russian's explanation is based on the fact that these organic compounds arose from inorganic compounds. In this sense, organic compounds, which are inert organisms, gradually accumulated and formed the first oceans, known as "primordial soup" or "primordial".

For Oparin, nitrogen, methane, water vapor, the little oxygen, in addition to other organic compounds present in the primitive atmosphere, were the first basic elements for the origin and evolution of life.

Formation and composition of the primordial broth

On early Earth, there was intense volcanic activity due to the presence of magmatic rock in the earth's crust. Oparin's hypotheses state that volcanic activities over a long period of time caused a saturation of atmospheric moisture.

For this reason, the temperatures in the primitive Earth were diminishing until finally a condensation of the water vapor took place; that is, it went from being in a gaseous form to being in a liquid form.

When the rains occurred, all the accumulated water was dragged to form the seas and oceans where the first amino acids and other organic elements would be produced.

Although temperatures on Earth remained very high, Oparin had concluded that such amino acids that were formed in the rains did not return as water vapor to the atmosphere, but would remain above a large rock with high temperature..

In addition, he developed the hypothesis that these amino acids with heat, ultraviolet rays, electric discharges plus the combination of other organic compounds, gave rise to the first proteins.

The coacervates: first living organisms

Oparin concluded that the proteins formed and dissolved in water, after being in the presence of chemical reactions, gave rise to colloids, which subsequently led to the appearance of “coacervates”.

Coacervates are systems formed by the union of amino acids and proteins known to be the first living elements of the early Earth. The term "coacervates" was proposed by Oparin to protobionts (first structures of molecules) present in an aqueous medium.

These coacervates were able to assimilate organic compounds from the environment, which little by little evolved to generate the first forms of life. Based on Oparin's theories, many organic chemists were able to corroborate the microscopic precursor systems of cells.

The ideas of the English geneticist John Haldane on the origin of life were very similar to those of Oparin. Haldane had accepted Oparin's primordial broth theory adding the paradox that such a definition is a solar-powered chemical laboratory.

Haldane argued that the atmosphere lacked sufficient oxygen and the combination of carbon dioxide and ultraviolet radiation resulted in a large number of organic compounds. The mixture of these substances caused a hot broth formed by organisms that were alive.

Natural selection applied to his theory

Aleksandr Oparin was identified from his early years by the works of Darwin, since in his time they were in vogue and he became more interested when he began his university studies.

However, as he learned, he began to have inconsistencies with Darwin's theory, so he began his own investigation.

Still, he accepted Darwin's theory of natural selection and adapted it to what he had investigated on his own. Natural selection explains how nature favors or hinders - depending on the properties and conditions - the reproduction of organisms.

Oparin took Darwin's theory of natural selection to explain the evolution of coacervates. According to the Russian, the coacervates began to reproduce and evolve through a process of natural selection.

After several years of this process, the coacervates - primitive organisms - were evolving to form the species that inhabit the Earth and the one that is known to this day.

Other contributions

Explanation to the problem of spontaneous generation

The theory of spontaneous generation was described through experiments and observations of processes such as putrefaction. After observations of decomposed meat, larvae or worms were witnessed, in which it was concluded that life arises from non-living matter.

One of his first publications was related to the problem of spontaneous generation, close to the date of publication of his work The Origin of Life.

In the publication he reflected on the similarity of protoplasms (part of the cell) with colloidal gels, stating that there is no difference between living and non-living, and that it cannot be explained with physicochemical laws.

Regarding spontaneous generation, he argued that the gradual accumulation and coagulation of the elements carbon and hydrogen on Earth could have led to the spontaneous generation of colloidal gels with living properties.

I work with enzymes

Although Oparin was known for his contributions to studies and theories on the origin of life, he also devoted significant efforts to the study of plant enzymology and industrial biochemistry, which he reflected in his work entitled Problems in evolutionary and industrial biochemistry.

On the other hand, he conducted experiments to analyze enzymes as biological catalysts and how they are capable of accelerating the metabolic processes of the first living organisms.

References

1. Aleksandr Oparin, Sidney W. Fox, (nd). Taken from britannica.com
2. Aleksandr Oparin, Wikipedia in English, (nd). Taken from wikipedia.org
3. Origin of life: Twentieth Century Landmarks, (2003). Taken from simsoup.info
4. Alexander Oparin (1894-1980), Portal The Physics of the Universe, (nd). Taken from phys Componentesheuniverse.com
5. Oparin, Aleksandr Ivanovich, Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, (nd). Taken from encyclopedia.com