14.08.19 - Our leaky ancestor

Going back through the generations, eventually you come to the ancestor of all life on earth, something scientists call LUCA (last universal common ancestor).

LUCA lived on a hydrothermal vent deep under the ocean, and probably used energy from the natural acidic gradient to survive and reproduce, using a generator called ATP-synthetase.

But now Victor Sojo and his colleagues at UCL have come up with an explanation for what might have gone on, suggesting LUCA has a leaky membrane, which might explain some mysteries surrounding bacteria and archea. Kat Arney asked Victor how this leaky membrane might have evolved.