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In a neglected 2005 paper, Nobel Laureate Paul Lauterbur proposed thatmolecular imprinting in amorphous materials -- a phenomenon with an extensiveexperimental literature -- played a key role in abiogenesis. The present paperbuilds on Lauterbur's idea to propose imprint-mediated templating (IMT), amechanism for prebiotic peptide replication that could potentially avoid arange of difficulties arising in classic gene-first and metabolism-first modelsof abiogenesis. Unlike models that propose prebiotic RNA synthesis, activation,and polymerization based on unknown chemistries, peptide/IMT models arecompatible with demonstrably realistic prebiotic chemistries: synthesis ofdilute mixtures of racemic amino acids from atmospheric gases, andpolymerization of unactivated amino acids on hot, intermittently-wettedsurfaces. Starting from a peptide/IMT-based genetics, plausible processes couldsupport the elaboration of genetic and metabolic complexity in an early-Earthenvironment, both explaining the emergence of homochirality and providing apotential bridge to nucleic acid metabolism. Peptide/IMT models suggestdirections for both theoretical and experimental inquiry.

Molecular Imprinting: The missing piece in the puzzle of abiogenesis?