The National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology awarded a $1,126,538 project grant to the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074) to support research exploring the origin of life through ecological dynamics and adaptive evolution. Over a three-year period from August 2022 to July 2025, the university will conduct both theoretical and laboratory research to test the hypothesis that the earliest adaptive evolution occurred through self-amplifying cycles of chemical reactions rather than nucleic acids. Theoretical work will develop computational tools to analyze chemical and ecological networks for adaptive evolution, conduct analyses of digital ecosystems to understand how species interaction patterns and spatial structure enable ecological change to resemble evolution, and use computer simulations of chemical reaction networks to examine similar factors. Laboratory experiments will track the chemical composition of complex mixtures driven out of equilibrium over time using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Statistical analysis of the results will seek to detect adaptive behaviors. The research aims to advance understanding of how life first emerged and has implications for astrobiology and fields involving evolutionary biology, ecology, computer science, and systems chemistry.
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