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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Conducting Miller-Urey Experiments
Published on: January 21, 2014
Functions and possible provenance of primordial proteins
Andrei P Sommer1, Norimune Miyake, N Chandra Wickramasinghe
1Central Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Ulm, 89081 Ulm, Germany. samoan@gmx.net
Abstract:
Nanobacteria or living nanovesicles are of great interest to the scientific community because of their dual nature: on the one hand, they appear as primal biosystems originating life; on the other hand, they can cause severe diseases. Their survival as well as their pathogenic potential is apparently linked to a self-synthesized protein-based slime, rich in calcium and phosphate (when available). Here, we provide challenging evidence for the occurrence of nanobacteria in the stratosphere, reflecting a possibly primordial provenance of the slime. An analysis of the slime's biological functions may lead to novel strategies suitable to block adhesion modalities in modern bacterial populations.
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