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Genes Hide in the "Gate": The Windmill Tetramer Carries the Primary Genetic Code of Life

发布时间：

2026-05-25

Genes Hide in the "Gate": The Windmill Tetramer Carries the Primary Genetic Code of Life

Sun Zuodong

The age-old puzzle of "which came first, the chicken or the egg" has been debated for millennia without a conclusion. At its core, this is because our understanding of "genes" has remained superficial. Today, we re-analyze this fundamental question of life from an entirely new theoretical perspective.

In the common understanding, genes are stored in the nuclear DNA. However, tracing back to the origin of life—from the gradual evolution of inorganic matter to organic compounds, and looking back at the primeval oceans billions of years ago—the earliest life forms were only lipid-based bubble membranes. At that time, there were no cell nuclei nor mature DNA. A simple membrane was merely a carrier for life and could not store genetic information. Where, then, did the genetic information of primitive life reside? The answer lies in the cell membrane channels, embedded within the structure of the windmill tetramer.

Lipid molecules gathered and closed to form the primitive membrane—this was the earliest form of an "egg" in the world, and the cell membrane was born. Attached to the membrane were ion channels shaped like folded paper windmills. This tetramer structure served specifically as the cellular gateway for substance intake, while other dedicated channels handled excretion. The tetramer consists of four subunits arranged around a central pore like the blades of a windmill. Chloride ions were enclosed inside the cell when the membrane first formed, and potassium, sodium, and calcium ions completed transmembrane exchange and flow through these gateway channels. The moment the tetramer structure took shape, the frequency of channel opening and closing, and the patterns of ion movement were permanently fixed, becoming the carrier of the fundamental information of life.

This was the earliest genetic code of life. It was not a fixed base sequence on a nucleic acid chain, but a dynamic operational rule carried by the tetramer structure. It controlled the uptake of cellular nutrients, the excretion of metabolic waste through other channels, and maintained a stable ion concentration gradient across the membrane—giving rise to bioelectricity and sustaining the complete life activities of the cell. This primitive set of rules was passed down through generations. The cell nucleus and DNA that emerged in later evolution merely transcribed, preserved, and stably backed up the original rules of the membrane; the core essence of life still relied on the membrane structure to function.

In the initial stage of life, there were only membranes and various ions, with no other carriers for genetic information. Only the windmill tetramers on the cell membrane retained the most primitive genetic information of life through fixed structures and ion ratios. All subsequent genetic variations and trait evolution in species were modifications based on this fundamental inheritance.

Therefore, the conclusion that the egg came first does not mean that complete DNA first appeared inside the egg. It means that the closed membrane and the tetramer gateway channels on it first established the genetic and survival laws of life. The egg built the earliest habitat for life, and the windmill tetramer, as the exclusive gateway of the cell, is also the original carrier of life's genes.