f. Formation of Protobionts or Procells

With nucleic acids now present alongside the surrounding inorganic and organic molecules, the first proper form of life-like matter could assemble: the protobiont. Protobionts are best described as prebiotic chemical aggregates — bundles of molecules that display some, though not all, of the properties of a true living system. Oparin (1924), describing this stage of his theory, called these aggregates coacervates: colloidal aggregations of hydrophobic proteins and lipids, essentially lipoid bubbles. A coacervate grew in size by absorbing material from the surrounding aqueous medium, and as it grew it became progressively more thermodynamically unstable, eventually splitting into smaller units in a manner loosely comparable to the budding of a daughter cell from its parent.

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