Abstract
Suppose that somewhere in the universe there is another Earth-like planet. How likely is it that life will develop there? Two approaches can be taken to answer this question. The first is to set up detailed search programs for extraterrestrial life, both inside and outside the solar system. Although unsuccessful so far, this procedure, as will be seen in Chap. 7, is potentially very powerful and has a high chance of detecting extraterrestrial life in the near future. The second approach is to study how life formed and evolved on Earth, based on the assumption that on other Earth-like planets life does appear for similar reasons. The present chapter therefore outlines the basic chemical tools and processes employed by life, and summarizes the biology of cells, because these are the basic units of living organisms. After considering the likely environment on the early Earth, the important question is then addressed: How did life form? Let us begin first by asking: What is life?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Chapter 5
Alberts, B., Bray, D., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K., Watson, J.D. 1994: Molecular Biology of the Cell, 3rd edn., New York London: Garland
Cairns-Smith, A.G. 1982: Genetic Takeover and the Mineral Origins of Life, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
de Duve, C. 1991: Blueprint for a Cell: The Nature and Origin of Life, Burlington, NC: Neil Patterson, Carolina Biol. Supply Co.
de Duve, C. 1998 (repr. 2000): Clues from present-day biology: the thioester world, in: The Molecular Origins of Life, A. Brack, Ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 219
Eigen, M., Winkler-Oswatitsch, R. 1981: Transfer RNA, an early gene?, Naturwiss. 68, 282
Ferris, J.P. 1998 (repr. 2000): Catalyzed RNA synthesis for the RNA world, in: The Molecular Origins of Life, A. Brack, Ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 255
Gavin, A.-C et al. 2002: Functional organization of the yeast proteome by systematic analysis of protein complexes, Nature 415, 141. See also Kumar, A., Snyder, M. 2002: Protein complexes take the bait, Nature 415, 123
Green, N.P.O, Stout, G.W., Taylor, D.J., Soper, R. 1993: Biological Science 1. Organisms, Energy and Environment, 2nd edn., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Hart, H., Hart, D.J., Craine, L.E. 1995: Organic Chemistry, a Short Course, 9th edn., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Hazen, R.M. 2001: Life’s rocky start, Scientific American, Apr., 63
Hutchinson III, C.A. et al. 1999: Global transposon mutagenesis and a minimal mycoplasma genome, Science 286, 2165
IG-TIGR 2002: Integrated Genomics Database, and TIGR Database: http://wit.integratedgenomics.com/GOLD/
http://www.tigr.org/tdb/mdb/mdbcomplete.html
Johnston, W.K. et al. 2001: RNA-catalyzed RNA polymerization: Accurate and general RNA-templated primer extension, Science 292, 1319
Mellersh, A. 1993: Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere 23, 261. See also Franklin, C. 1993: Did life have a simple start?, New Scientist, Oct. 2, 13
Miller, S.L. 1998: see Chapter 2
Miller, S.L., Orgel, L.E. 1974: The Origins of Life on the Earth, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
Mushegian, A.R., Koonin, E.V. 1996: A minimum gene set for cellular life derived by comparison of complete bacterial genomes, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 10268
Orgel, L.E. 1998: The origin of life — a review of facts and speculations, Trends Biochem. Sci. 23, 491
Rasmussen, B. 2000: Filamentous microfossils in a 3,235-million-year-old volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit, Nature 405, 676
Robertson, M.P., Miller, S.L. 1995: An efficient prebiotic synthesis of cytosine and uracil, Nature 375, 772
Schwartz, A.W. 1998 (repr. 2000): Origins of the RNA world, in: The Molecular Origins of Life, A. Brack, Ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 237
Smith, J.V. et al. 1999: Biochemical evolution III: Polymerization on organophilic silica-rich surfaces, crystal-chemical modeling, formation of first cells, and geological clues, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 3479
Tomita, M. 2001: Whole-cell simulation: a grand challenge of the 21st century, Trends in Biotechnology 19, 205. See also Periwal, V., Szallasi, Z. 2002: Trading “wet-work” for network, Nature Biotechnology 20, 345, and Endy, D., Brent, R. 2001: Modelling cellular behaviour, Nature 409, 391, as well as Tomita, M. et al, 1999: E-CELL: software environment for whole-cell simulation, Bioinformatics 15, 72
Wächtershäuser, G. 1988: Before enzymes and templates: Theory of surface metabolism, Microbiol. Rev. 52, 452
Wächtershäuser, G. 1998 (repr. 2000): Origin of life in an iron—sulfur world, in: The Molecular Origins of Life, A. Brack, Ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 206
Woese, C.R. 1987: Bacterial evolution, Microbiol. Rev. 51, 221
Woese, C.R. 1998: The universal ancestor, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 6854
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ulmschneider, P. (2003). Life and its Origin on Earth. In: Intelligent Life in the Universe. Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43212-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43212-9_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-43214-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-43212-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive