Coacervates arise from the combination of complex molecules.
Before proceeding to determine the meaning of the term coacervates , it is necessary to proceed to discover its etymological origin. In this case, we can establish that it is a word that derives from Latin, exactly from the verb "coacervare", which can be translated as "accumulate."
Coacervates are systems formed by the union of complex molecules such as proteins and amino acids. These elements are classified as primitive living beings since, according to biologists, they were key in the development of life on planet Earth .
Discovery of coacervates
The Russian Aleksander Oparin was the one who discovered that it was possible to generate lifeless lipid membranes. After various experiments, he managed to produce droplets with a high level of biomolecules , isolated from the aqueous medium by a primary membrane. He gave these drops the name coacervates.
Chemical reactions develop in coacervates that give rise to increasingly complex systems . As this complexity progresses, the coacervates become separated from the aqueous environment and emerge as independent units that interact with the environment.
It can be said that coacervates are grains or drops that are delimited by a membrane . These are sets of molecules that have two phases: water molecules surround grains that have various chemical substances. Thus a layer is formed that separates the coacervates themselves from the liquid in which they develop.
According to one theory, today's cells would derive from primitive coacervates.
Theory about its origin
One theory indicates that, in the Earth 's early atmosphere, there was water, carbon dioxide, ammonia and methane. Electrical discharges and solar rays provided the conditions for the emergence of coacervates, which would have appeared in the ocean, where different organic materials were already found.
The absorption of these organic materials allowed the nutrition of the coacervates, which began to develop and generate more complex molecules. Continuing with this theory, current cells would be the evolution of those molecules.
Characteristics of coacervates
In the same way, we cannot ignore another important series of aspects about coacervates, such as the following:
-They have the ability to possess what is known as selective tendency.
-Another of the important questions about these elements that concern us is that they have the capacity to absorb everything they find in their path. However, they cannot include or add another coacervate to what is their corresponding composition.
-The theory or hypothesis established by the Russian Oparin about the origin of life was taken up, some time later, by the American scientist Stanley Miller (1930 – 2007). What he achieved was nothing other than, from inorganic matter, giving shape to certain organic matter.
-Oparin was elected President of the International Society for the Study of the Origins of Life in 1970.
In addition to everything indicated, we cannot ignore the fact that coacervates have currently become very useful elements in different sectors such as, for example, chemistry. Specifically, they are used in this aforementioned area to proceed to give shape to what the analysis of compounds is.