Abstract
In our studies of the origin of life we will encounter the major macromolecules of life: proteins, nucleic acids, polysaccharides and lipids. We shall learn that there is great unity in all of biochemistry. This important remark will be illustrated with Two stunning examples: the analogous asymmetry of all the main molecules of life and secondly, the universality of the genetic code. [More often than elsewhere in the book the reader may find it necessary to refer to the notes and the glossary for a deeper appreciation of the concepts discussed in this chapter.]
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.
Notes and References
More precisely, the angle a through which the plane of polarization is rotated can be given a sign as follows: when looking towards the incoming beam of light, for a clockwise rotation of a, we would assign the term ‘right-handed’; if such a rotation is anticlockwise we say that the rotation is ‘left-handed’.
Oró, J. (1995) Chemical synthesis of lipids and the origin of life, in Ponnamperuma, C. and Chela-Flores, J. (eds.), (1995) Chemical Evolution: The Structure and Model of the First Cell, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 135–147.
Cf. Glossary: “glycerol”; cf. also Kandier, O. (1995) Cell wall biochemistry in Archaea and its phylogenetic implications, in Ponnamperuma, C. and Chela-Flores, J. (eds.), (1995) Chemical Evolution: The structure and model of the first cell, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 165–169.
Cf. Glossary: “neutron star”, supernova and enantiomer; cf. also Chapter 2, “molecular clouds”.
Bonner, W. A. (1991) The origin and amplification of biomolecular chirality, Origins of Life and the Evolution of the Biosphere 21, 59–111.
Greenberg, J. M., Kouchi, A., Niessen, W., Irth, H., van Pardijs, J., de Groot, M., and Hermsen, W. (1995) Interstellar dust, chirality, comets and the origins of life: Life from dead stars?, in Ponnamperuma, C. and Chela-Flores, J. (eds.), (1995) Chemical Evolution: The Structure and Model of the First Cell, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 61–70.
Cline, D., Liu, Y. and Wang, H. (1995) Effect of a chiral impulse on the weak interaction induced handedness in a prebiotic medium, Origins of Life and the Evolution of the Biosphere 25, 201–209.
The Murchison meteorite will be discussed more fully in Chapter 6; cf. also Oro, J., Miller, S. L., and Lazcano, A. (1990) The origin and carly evolution of life on Earth Ann. Rev. Earth Planet Sci. 18, 317–356.
Ponnamperuma C. (1995) The origin of the cell from Oparin to the present day, in Ponnamperuma, C. and Chela-Flores, J. (eds.), (1995), Chemical Evolution: The Structure and Model of the First Cell, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 3–9.
Cronin, J. R. and Pizzarello, S. (1997) Enantiomeric excesses in meteoritic amino acids, Science 275, 951–955.
Bonitz, S. G., Berlani, R., Corruzzi, G., Li, M., Macino, G., Nobrega, F. G., Nobrega, M. P., Thalenfeld, B. E., and Tzagoloff, A. (1980) Codon recognition rules in yeast mitochondria, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77, 3167–3170.
Bruijn, M. H. L. (1983) Drosophila melanogaser mitochondrial DNA, a novel organization and genetic code, Nature 304, 234–241.
Barrel, B. G., Bankier, A.T. and Drouin, J. (1979) A different genetic code in human mitochondria, Nature 282, 189–194.
Margulis, L. (1993) Symbiosis in Cell Evolution, Freeman & Co., San Francisco.
Margulis, L. and Sagan, D. (1987) Microcosm, Allen & Unwin, London, p. 132.
We have attempted to be consistent in our reference to stratigraphy by referring to the conventions of J. W. Schopf (ed.), (1983) Earth’s Earliest Biosphere Its Origin and Evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Sleep, N. H., Zahnle, K.J., Kasting, J. F., and Morowitz, H. J. (1989) Annihilation of ecosystems by large asteroid impacts on the early Earth Nature 342, 139–142.
Schidlowski, M. (1995) Early terrestrial life: Problems of the oldest record, in Chela-Flores, J., Chadha, M., Negron-Mendoza, A. and Oshima, T. (eds.), Chemical Evolution: Self-Organization of the Macromolecules of Life, A. Deepak Publishing: Hampton, Virginia, USA. pp. 65–80
Schopf, J. W. (1993) Microfossils of the Early Archean Apex Chert: New Evidence of the Antiquity of Life, Science 260, 640–646.
Mojzsis, S.J., Harrison, T.M. and Pidgeon, R.T. (2001) Oxygen-isotope evidence from ancient zircons for liquid water at the Earth’s surface 4,3000 Myr ago, Nature 409, 178–181; cf., also Halliday, A.N. (2001) In the beginning…, Nature 409, 144-145.
Chatton, E. 1937; for a review of the prokaryotic and eukaryotic dichotomy cf. Rizzotti, M. (2000) Early Evolution, Birkhauser Verlag, Basel, Chapter 3, pp. 24–52.
Zukerkandl, E. and Pauling, L. (1965) Molecules as documents of evolutionary history, J. Theor. Biol. 8, 357–366.
Woese, C. R. (1983) The primary lines of descent, inD. S. Bendali (ed.), Evolution form molecules to man, Cambridge University Press, London, pp. 209–233.
Cf. Glossary: “lipid bilayer”, “taxonomy”.
Woese, C. R. (1998) The universal ancestor, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 6854–6859.
Prieur, D., Ercuso, G. and Jeanthon, C. (1995) Hyperthermophilic life at deep-sea hydrothermal vents, Planet. Space Sci. 43, 115–122.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chela-Flores, J. (2001). From prebiotic evolution to single cells. In: The New Science of Astrobiology. Cellular Origin and Life in Extreme Habitats, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0822-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0822-8_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-2229-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0822-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive