I thought this paper might warrant some conversation:
It touches on a central issue in origin of life research - could life be simpler than the simplest forms we observe today?
All known ferredoxins (a key component in many electron transfer pathways) are composed of two distinct parts, making them asymmetrical. How do you evolve a ferredoxin if you need two different parts simultaneously? A likely answer is that ferredoxins started as symmetrical pairs of a single part, which is easier to evolve. But can a symmetrical ferredoxin function? That is the main question this paper seeks to answer.
The result is ‘yes’ a symmetrical ferredoxin homodimer is functional. This lends credence to the idea that ancestral organisms existed (or at least could have existed) which were simpler than any currently living organism.