Viruses, ET and the octopus from space: the return of | Cosmos

26/04/2018, 4:37 AM

Viruses, ET and the octopus
from space: the return ofpanspermia
A major paper revives the oft-mocked theory thatlife on Earth began in a rain of cosmic microbes.
Stephen Fleischfresser reports.

The search for ET, say researchers, could start and end with the octopus.
CREDIT: VIZERSKAYA/GETTY IMAGES

The peer-reviewed journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular
Biology recently published a most remarkable scientificpaper [1]. With 33 authors from a wide range of reputable universities
and research institutes, the paper makes a seemingly incredible claim.

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A claim that if true, would have the most profound consequences forour understanding of the universe. Life, the paper argues, did not
originate on the planet Earth.
The response?
Near silence.
The reasons for this are as fascinating as the evidence and claims
advanced by the paper itself. Entitled Cause of the Cambrian
Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic?, the publication revives acontroversial idea concerning the origin of life, an idea stretching backto Ancient Greece, known as panspermia.
The scientific orthodoxy concerning the origin of life is called
abiogenesis [2]. This suggests that at some point in the earth’s early
history, conditions were favourable for the creation of complex organic
chemistry that, in turn, led to the self-organisation of the first primitive
life forms.
Much is understood about the process, but exactly how information
came to be coded in nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) to form the systemof genetic inheritance and expression, and how this transformed intolife itself, remains unknown. The other slightly uncomfortable aspect of
the abiogenic account is that it seems to take place in a surprisingly
short amount of time. The theory requires that the "primordial soup"from which self-replicating RNA emerged formed within an 800
million year period following the stabilisation of the Earth's crust, atimeframe some researchers think is too narrow [3].
Despite its drawbacks and lack of detail, abiogenesis is the consensus,
the only plausible hypothesis for the origin of life.
The panspermia hypothesis, however, disputes nearly every aspect of
this story.
Of the 33 authors, Edward Steele and Chandra Wickramasinghe are themost well-known.

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Steele, an Australian immunologist, has a history as something of amaverick [4]. He has long championed the idea of inheritance ofacquired characteristics, a theory first aired by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck,
the French evolutionist prior to Darwin.
Although the latter much admired Lamarck’s work, most scientists
have since discarded it. In 1979, Steele took a contrary position,
advocating a neo-Lamarckian idea known as “somatic selection
hypothesis" [5], published in 1979. The later advent of epigenetics,
and the discovery of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in numerous
microbial organisms have somewhat restored Lamarck’s tarnishedreputation, with some biologists suggesting HGT represents "a formof (quasi)Lamarkian inheritance" [6].
Wickramasinghe is a famed astronomer and astrobiologist with anillustrious career. He has held a string of professorships at Universities
in both England and Sri Lanka, and has more than 70 publications in
Nature.
One of his more notable contributions, along with his long-time
collaborator, the late Sir Fred Hoyle, was the hypothesis thatinterstellar dust was partly made up of organic molecules, which
Wickramasinghe went on to confirm experimentally. This finding
prompted him to become a lifelong advocate of the panspermia
hypothesis, publishing numerous papers on the topic.
Hoyle thus exerts a posthumous influence over the new paper.
Originally Wickramasinghe’s PhD supervisor, he was an odd mix ofgenius and far-out ideas: he formulated the notion of stellar
nucleosynthesis, the now well-established theory that says all elements
heavier than helium are created through fusion in the hearts of stars.
He also thought that the famous Archaeopteryx [7] fossil [8],transitional between dinosaurs and birds, was a manufactured fake.

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Astronauts working on the exterior of the International Space Station, which research has
found to be covered in bacteria.
CREDIT: NASA/SCIENCE SOURCE

Hoyle and Wickramasinghe developed the model of panspermia at thecentre of the recent study. The new paper is a review of “the key
experimental and observational data gathered over the past 60 years”,
write the authors, “consistent with or predicted by the HoyleWickramasinghe (H-W) thesis of Cometary (Cosmic) Biology”.
The H-W model holds, the authors state, “that life was seeded here on
Earth by life-bearing comets as soon as conditions on Earth allowed it
to flourish (at or just before 4.1 billion years ago); and living organisms
such as space-resistant and space-hardy bacteria, viruses, more
complex eukaryotic cells and organisms, … perhaps even fertilised ova
and plant seeds, may have been continuously delivered ever since toEarth helping to drive further the progress of terrestrial biologicalevolution.”In other words, the researchers suggest that abiogenesis did not
happen on Earth and the main source of genetic novelty is not causedby the selection of naturally occurring advantageous mutations, but

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rather comes from a rain of extra-terrestrial living matter that
integrates itself, via neo-Lamarckian mechanisms such as horizontal
gene transfer, into the genomes of terrestrial life.
Beyond this, the model also postulates that various epidemics arecaused by the arrival of viruses from space and that extra-terrestrial
retroviruses drove the Cambrian explosion.
Not to mention that the octopus might well be an alien.
One might be tempted to laugh, if it weren’t for the volume of titillating
evidence they present, and the nagging worry that the naysayers havebeen wrong before. For decades everyone knew, for example, that
continents didn’t just go drifting about the place. Until they did.
But just because theories seen as crackpot by the scientificestablishment have later been vindicated does not necessarily meanthat is the case here.
The proof advanced “would support an extra-terrestrial origin of life,”
writes commentator and evolutionary scientist Keith Baverstock fromthe University of Eastern Finland, puts it in the same issue of thejournal [9], but is “not evidence that could not be explained in any
other terms." In other words, the argument advanced by Steel andcolleagues in plausible, but not not convincing.
Nonetheless, the paper has withstood a year of intense peer review. As
Steele points out to Cosmos, “It has thus passed some severe andtortuous tests already.” The tension between the evidence and theclaims based on it make for uneasy reading.
Just as the field of Alzheimer’s research ponders [10] if its main
theory of many decades is wrong, perhaps it is worth entertaining aquaint notion: what if panspermia is right?
The paper is remarkable in tone. Far from the cautious claims ofnormal scientific literature, it is almost triumphant. “The consistency
with panspermia of a vast swathe of new data,” Wickramasinghe tells
Cosmos, “often entailing new and unexpected developments oftechnology, over the past four decades have given us the confidence toadopt this tone.”https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/viruses-et-and-the-octopus-from-space-the-return-of-panspermia

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The evidence is enough to back their confidence, fascinating anddetailed. Central to their paper, and indeed their model of panspermia,
is the action of viruses, retroviruses, in particular, and much of theevidence presented revolves around them.
Retroviruses are fiendishly clever. They are the foremost practitionersof horizontal gene transfer, integrating their own genetic material into
the genome of the infected host to produce more viruses.
Intriguingly, if they infect germline cells, sperm or ova, for example,
then the organism will transmit the integrated retrovirus, known as aprovirus, to their descendants. In other words, the acquired genetic
material becomes part of the offspring’s inheritance. It’s a solidly
Lamarckian mechanism and Steele’s own somatic selection hypothesis
is based on such viral capacities.
This ability to affect the genetic makeup of their hosts makes viruses aforce to be reckoned with. As a group of researchers, led by
microbiologist Matthew B Sullivan, wrote in 2016 [11], “viruses
modulate the function and evolution of all living things, but to what
extent remains a mystery.”And the truth is there are a lot of viruses around.
Virologist Curtis Suttle from the University of British Columbia in
Canada and his colleagues last year published the firstresearch [12] into the number of viruses being deposited from theatmosphere. The amount is staggering, possibly billions a day for every
square metre of the earth. Viruses are puissant and ubiquitous.
Steele and colleagues seem to have been finally spurred to action by
new virological data connecting viruses and evolution.
In 2017 Pakorn Aiewsakun and Aris Katzourakis from the University of
Oxford in the UK published a paper in [13]Nature
Communications [14] that concluded that “retroviruses emerged
together with their vertebrate hosts in the ocean” at least 460 million
years ago. They also established that the two entities demonstrate

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patterns of co-speciation: as the host organisms transform into new
species, their viral counterparts similarly transform. This, claim Steele
and colleagues, is a key prediction of the H-W panspermia hypothesis.
Steele and colleagues derive two points from Aiewsakun andKatzourakis’ findings.
The first is that viruses are successful only because they have evolved tomake use of the host’s cellular machinery and genetic regulatory makeup – that is, they are “in touch with the whole of the cell’s very ability togrow and divide to produce progeny cells and to evolve”. Given this,evidence that retroviruses emerged at the same time as, and cospeciated with, their hosts, simply doesn’t add up. Retroviruses arecarefully adapted to the stable make-up of their target hosts and suchco-variance just shouldn’t happen.
The second point is that the emergence of these retroviruses barely
predates the Cambrian Explosion, a period in which sudden andunparalleled biological diversity and complexity appeared on Earth.
They also emerge not long after a mass extinction event at the end of
the Ediacaran period, 542 million years ago.
Panspermia accounts for all this, the authors explain, thus: theEdiacaran extinction was most likely brought about by comets thatbrought with them complex retroviruses. The retroviruses were themain driver of the Cambrian explosion. They integrated themselves
into the genomes of countless terrestrial species, introducing novel
genetic material which resulted in an explosion of diversification ofliving forms.
They integrated so quickly and easily, without the need or time to
evolve to the target host’s genetic make-up, because they arrived
already primed to do so. This is because the H-W panspermia
hypothesis posits a cosmic biology, in which, write the researchers, “theentire galaxy (and perhaps a local group of galaxies) constitutes asingle connected biosphere”. All life, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial, is related, according to this view, as all life comes from thegreater biosphere in which genetic material in the “cosmic gene pool” ishttps://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/viruses-et-and-the-octopus-from-space-the-return-of-panspermia

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readily shared. There is an underlying biochemical unity of all life,
differing only in which isotopes of essential elements life from different
parts of the universe might use.
As Wickramasinghe puts it, “Ourpoint of view is that in the context
of an interconnected cosmic
biosphere involving at least 100
billion habitable exoplanets in ourgalaxy alone, and with continuing
exchanges of biomaterial, large
scale HGT including exchanges ofcomplex genetic packages in theform of viruses, seeds, bacteria is
unavoidable.”
One of the reasons for adopting
panspermia, he explains, is the

One of the loudest champions ofpanspermia theory, the late astronomer,
Fred Hoyle.

“superastronomically improbabletransition from non-life to life”.

CREDIT: DAVID LEVENSON/GETTY IMAGES

The idea that abiogenesis occurredon the cosmically insignificant earth in an awkwardly short amount oftime strikes him as improbable, at best.
“The choice between life originating on Earth against manifestly
insuperable odds,” he says, “and an origin in the connected volume of alarge part of the almost infinite universe is a simple binary choice. We
chose the most probable.”
Steele and colleagues argue that abiogenesis is deeply unlikely here on
earth and that “it is many orders of magnitude more likely that it
emerged in one of the trillions of comet-like incubators or waterbearing planets (cosmic-wide versions of Darwin's 'warm little
ponds' [15]) at a very early time in the growth of this universe”.
Despite this, Wickramasinghe, Hoyle and Steele have all entertained
the notion that there is no need for such a creation story. When asked if
there must be abiogenesis at some point, somewhere in the universe,

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Steele replies, “Actually no. If the universe is steady state infinite there
is no formal abiogenesis! I am not saying I agree with that. But Big
Bang or steady state are so mind-boggling I find both incredible!”
The reason for this, and a common factor amongst the three scientists,
is a commitment to, or interest in, the steady state theory of cosmology.
The idea, first put forward by Hoyle and two colleagues in 1948, holds
that the universe has no beginning or end and remains the same size.
As matter at the outer reaches of the universe loses energy and goesdark, new matter is created.
In this view, biology is as timeless and without origin as the universe
itself. Hoyle famously lost the fight over cosmological models to George
Gamow and the advocates for the Big Bang. Despite the discovery ofcosmic microwave background radiation in 1964, something predicted
by Big Bang theory, Hoyle never recanted his beliefs, and the steadystate universe seems an underlying presence in the H-W model ofpanspermia.
The background theories and characters may be unsettling, but they
don’t detract from the evidence upon which the paper rests, whichmust be taken on its own terms. Much of it is peer reviewed, but it is
not always as persuasive as billed. Nonetheless, there is a good deal
that gives one pause for thought.
For example, when asked why we haven’t found obvious signs of
microbial life elsewhere in the solar system, both Steele andWickramasinghe seem adamant that such evidence has, in fact, beenfound. Both point to the work of Gilbert Levin [16], the principal
investigator of the 1976 Viking mission to Mars and his colleague
Patricia Straat. Viking’s results pointed to something with ametabolism in the Martian soils, but then couldn’t detect any organic
material. The result is interesting, but inconclusive.
The authors also insist fossil microbes have already been found invarious meteorites, including the famous Murchison meteorite [17]that fell in Victoria, Australia, in 1969. While they point to refereed
journal articles for support, it seems the jury is still out. Once again, theevidence is tantalising but not conclusive.
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More recently, traces of seemingly biological carbon deposits have beenfound in rocks predating the emergence of life, during a period of heavy
comet and asteroid bombardment. The authors see this as evidence oflife carried to earth, but, as Baverstock suggests, there are otherreasons such carbon might be there.
More intriguing is the discovery of bacteria and microbes in unlikely
places, such as the stratosphere, 30 to 40 kilometres above the surfaceof the planet, and more excitingly on the outside of theInternational Space Station [18]. In the case of the ISS,
contamination has been ruled out and the physics suggests that it is notpossible for the microbes to have been lofted up from the earth’s
surface.
Just as fascinating are suggestive astronomical findings, such as the
Rosetta mission’s discovery [19] of organic compounds on andaround the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This finding
coincides nicely with Hoyle and Wickramasinghe’s demonstration thatinterstellar dust is partly made of organic molecules.
Perhaps the most intriguing astronomical evidence of all is that whichconverted Steele to the panspermia hypothesis.
A development from the research into organic interstellar dust, thespectrum of light produced as infra-red radiation passes throughcosmic dust turns out [20] to have the exact same spectral signature
as freeze-dried E. coli bacteria. Steele’s frustration with the scientificcommunity’s indifference to this staggering result is palpable.
“All our knowledge of the universe,” he says, “has been built this way –get the spectrum (emission, absorption) in the laboratory on Earth,then focus the telescope on a cosmic source/object and ask, What is the
spectrum or signature? Does it match that found in the Earth-basedlaboratory?”
The answer? “It is an exact match – you cannot get better than that inscience.”https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/viruses-et-and-the-octopus-from-space-the-return-of-panspermia

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So why has the result largely been passed over as a curiosity? Steelemuses, “The situation is reminiscent to the problem Galileo had with
the Catholic priests of his time – most refused to look through histelescope to observe the moons of Jupiter.”
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the new paper concerns theorigins of the octopus. The discussion begins, as it so often does in thepaper, with some intriguing evidence.
Cephalopods (the group comprising squid, cuttlefish, nautilus andoctopus) have a somewhat confusing evolutionary tree, first appearing
in the late Cambrian period and seemingly descending from anancestral primitive nautiloid [21].
Of these, the octopus is the most striking, with features, such as acomplex nervous system, sophisticated eyes and a capacity forcamouflage, that appear quite suddenly in its evolution. The genes
necessary for this transformation, the authors suggest, are not present
in its ancestry. Thus, they hold that “it is plausible then to suggest they
seem to be borrowed from a far distant ‘future’ in terms of terrestrial
evolution, or more realistically from the cosmos at large.”
Interestingly, the octopus has some real and pervasive biochemicaldifferences from the nautilus, presumably the closest living relative of
the former’s ancestor. In particular, there is evidence of extensivechanges in the RNA, and thus proteins, found in the neural structuresof cephalopods.
These changes have been evolutionarily preserved and are not found to
this extent elsewhere in nature, not even in the nautilus. This indicatesthat a qualitative evolutionary transformation occurred relatively
recently and abruptly in behaviourally complex cephalopods. The sheer
scale of these changes leads the authors to conclude that it cannot be
explained by normal neo-Darwinian processes. Or even Lamarckian
processes. And they may have a point.
But here things get weird. “One plausible explanation, in our view, isthat the new genes are likely new extraterrestrial imports to Earth –most plausibly as an already coherent group of functioning genes
within (say) cryopreserved and matrix protected fertilised octopus
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eggs,” write the authors. This would “be a parsimonious cosmic
explanation for the octopus' sudden emergence on Earth [about] 270
million years ago.”
It’s moments like this that point to the source of the paper’s unease. It
lies not with the evidence it presents, but rather the larger conclusions
drawn.
The evidence is nonetheless provocative. Taken together it indicates, if
nothing else, that there is much we don’t know and that our prevailingscientific orthodoxies will undergo transformations, as all scientifictheories do.
The orthodox scientific response is encapsulated in the commentaryfrom the decorated virologist Karin Moelling [22] of the Max
Planck Institute Molecular Genetics, in Berlin, and Institute of Medical
Microbiology, Zürich, published in the same journal issue.
“So this article is useful, calling for attention, and it is worth thinking
about,” she says, “yet the main statement about viruses, microbes andeven animals coming to us from space, cannot be taken seriously.”
These kinds of pronouncements have led to the near-radio silence fromthe media, except for the occasional piece riffing on the theme ofspace octopuses [23]. Scientific commentary is muted, confused by
the tension between the outlandish claims and the peer-reviewed
status of the paper.
Maybe we should side with sage advice of the journal’s editor, therenowned British biologist Denis Noble. “The usual mantra ‘further
research is needed’ applies even more than usual,” he writes [24]. “In
the future, the ideas will surely become testable.”
The authors, too, think this the best course of action. “The whole issue
is on the verge of being decided by decisive evidence of extra-terrestrial
life being found elsewhere in our solar system,” they conclude.
Instead of dismissing panspermia out of hand, perhaps then, we should
just wait for the discoveries that future space probes might bring.
Evidence, as always, will be the ultimate decider.

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STEPHEN FLEISCHFRESSER is a lecturer at the University of
Melbourne's Trinity College and holds a PhD in the History andPhilosophy of Science.

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story/61c54641ceb4dbf0c9da927e5a7de49e
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