Top-down, bottom-up; RNA-based, lipid-based; theory, experiment — there are many different ways of investigating what constitutes a 'minimal cell'. Progress requires finding common themes between them. In investigating the origin of life and the simplest possible life forms, one needs to enquire about the composition and working of a minimal cell that has some form of metabolism, genetic replication from a template, and boundary (membrane) production. Approaches to this intriguing problem are discussed in Tibor Ganti's The Principles of Life (Oxford Univ. Press, 2003), and were also debated at a meeting last December.
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