Energy at life's origin

Analysis of the bioenergetics of primitive organisms suggests that life began at hydrothermal vents Energy-releasing chemical reactions are at the core of the living process of all organisms. These bioenergetic reactions have myriad substrates and products, but their main by-product today is adenosine triphosphate (ATP), life's primary currency of metabolic energy. Bioenergetic reactions have been running in a sequence of uninterrupted continuity since the first prokaryotes arose on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago, long before there was oxygen to breathe (1). Under what conditions did these bioenergetic processes first evolve?

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