Genesis - In The Beginning. Precursors of Life, Chemical Models and Early Biological Evolution

Abstract

Genesis and evolution of Life with chemical, geological and biological data in one volume The book covers several aspects of Life on Earth and on Solar system and beyond The authors are competent and experts in their fields and present updated data from their research This book deals with the Origin of Life on Earth and planets, which is currently a very “hot” topic dealt with at several international meetings, conferences and workshops by various societies and groups. The current volume is number 22 of the “Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology” series (COLE) published by Springer. The contributors review new data in this field, following current studies from gene and molecular to macro levels. The extremophiles – microorganisms living at the edge of Life under very severe conditions (from our anthropocentric view point) - may point out possibilities of existing Life forms on other planets and satellites. In eight sections and fifty chapters, the seventy-five authors cover subjects such as chemical evolution, the function of geophysics in Life’s origin, the first steps of cellular evolution, Panspermia (the theory claiming that the source of Life is not from Earth but from Outer Space), possibility of extraterrestrial Life (Astrobiology), and the history of origin of Life on Earth and beyond. This up-to-date book complements volume 6 (Origin Genesis, Evolution and Diversity of Life (2004) in the COLE series (ISBN: 978-1-4020-1813-8) published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. Professor D. Deamer ends his Introduction with these words: Future progress in understanding the origin of life will involve simulations of prebiotic conditions that take this complexity into account. Some of the chapters in this book focus on specific aspects of the chemical and physical processes that would be involved in life's origins, while others incorporate increments in complexity such as mineral surfaces and compartments. In a sense, each chapter represents a piece of a puzzle, and readers who take the time to read all the chapters may see unexpected patterns emerge that will give clues to solving the puzzle. The primary audience for this book are general biologists, geologists, geneticists, astrobiologists and astrophysicists, and advance undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and teachers in those fields. Table of Contents Pathways to “Genesis - In the Beginning: Precursors of Life, Chemical Models and Early Biological Evolution”; Joseph Seckbach Introduction to Genesis - In The Beginning; David W. Deamer Foreword; Steven A. Benner Origins of Life - Keeping Options Open; Alan W. Schwartz PART 1. CHEMICAL EVOLUTION The Prebiotic Chemistry of Alternative Nucleic Acids; H. James Cleaves II, Jeffrey Bada Cooptive Evolution of Prebiotic Chemical Networks; Chrisantha Fernando, Vera Vasas Origin and Evolution of Self-Replicating Polymers on Mineral Habitats; Enzo Gallori, Sergio Branciamore Mathematical Models of Prebiotic Replication: A Primer for Experimentalists; Kelly Harris, Irene A. Chen Life without Carbon; Rob Hengeveld [GADV]-Protein World Hypothesis on the Origin of Life; Kenji Ikehara Reality of the Emergence of Life-Like Systems from Simple Prebiotic Polymers on Primitive Earth; Kunio Kawamura The Photobiological Regime in the Very Early Earth and the Emergence of Life; Osmel Martin, Rolando Cardenas, Liuba Peñate, J.E. Horvath Prebiotic Formation of Peptides: A Markov Chain Approach; F.G Mosqueira, A. Negrón-Mendoza, S. Ramos-Bernal, C. Polanco Atomic Structural Templates of the Earliest Life on Earth: Vibration and Lightning Experiments with Quartz and Amino Acids; M Pawlikowski Chemical Evolution in Open Space: A Link to the Origin of ; Michael Simakov The Prebiotic Chemistry of Nitrogen and the Origin of Life; David Summers PART 2. THE ROLE OF PHYSICS AND GEOPHYSICS IN THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LIFE Moving ‘Far from Equilibrium’ in a Prebiotic Environment: The Role of Maxwell’s Demon in Life Origin; David L. Abel Life from Interface; Katsuhiko Ariga,; Gary J. Richards, and Jonathan P.Hill Breaking the Paradigm: The Pattern of Life; Tom Barbalet Cyberbiogenesis and the EvoGrid: a 21st Century Grand Challenge; Bruce Damer, Peter Newman, Ryan Norkus, Richard Gordon and Tom Barbalet Constructive Approaches for the Origin of Life; Norikazu Ichihashi, Tomoaki Matsuura, Hiroshi Kita; Takeshi Sunami, Hiroaki Suzuki, and Tetsuya Yomo Origin of Life by Thermodynamic Inversion: A Universal Process; Vladimir Kompanichenko Life Explained by Heat Engines; Anthonie W.J. Muller Computational Simulations of Prebiotic Processes; Albert Rimola, Mariona Sodupe and Piero Ugliengo The Cometary Hydrosphere; Robert B.Sheldon In Situ, High Spatial Resolution Techniques in the Search for the Origin of Life; David Wacey PART 3. THE ROLE OF SYMMETRY, INFORMATION AND ORDER IN THE ORIGIN OF LIFE Disorder to Order, Non-Life to Life. In the Beginning There Was a Mistake; Ernesto Di Mauro, Keith A. Dunker and Eward N. Trifonov The Role of Information and Order in the Origin of Life; B. Roy Frieden and Robert A. Gatenby The Origin of First Peptides on Earth – From Amino Acids to Homochiral Biomolecules; Thomas Jakschitz, Daniel Fitz and Bernd Michael Rode Chemical Models for the Origin of Biological Homochirality; Martin Klußmann Absolute Asymmetric Reactions and the Origin of Biological Chirality; Gábor Lente Energy-Driven Evolution of Prebiotic Chiral Order (Lessons from Dynamic Systems Modelling); Radu Pop and Vily M. Cimpoiasu PART 4. PANSPERMIA Recurrent Dreams of Life in Meteorites; Richard Gordon and Jesse McNichol Are We from Outer Space? A Critical Review of the Panspermia Hypothesis; Jesse McNichol and Richard Gordon Origin of Life and Panspermia; Chandra Wickramasinghe PART 5. THE FIRST STEPS OF CELLULAR EVOLUTION The Dimeric Proto-Ribosome Within the Modern Ribosome; Ilana Agmon Oceanic Arginine Translator: The Origin of Life and Early Evolution of the Genetic Code; Robert W.Griffith Tidal Cycling and the Origin of the Genetic Code: Implications for Cellular Life; Richard Lathe Heterotrophic Model Protocells; Sheref S. Mansy and Cristina Del Bianco A Symbiogenic Way in the Origin of Life; Luisa Pereira, Telma Rodrigues and Francisco Carrapiço Horizontal Gene Transfer and the Tree of Life; Jan Sapp On the Vesicular Origin of the Cell Cycle; Saša Svetina Hypothesized Micro-Environments for the Origin of Microbial Life on Earth; Jack T. Trevors, Asim K. Bej and Jan Dirk van Elsas PART 6. THE DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND ELSEWHERE IN THE COSMOS What can Life on Earth Tell Us about Life in the Universe? Charles H. Lineweaver and Aditya Chopra Potential for Life in the Saturn System; Francois Raulin Energy Sources for, and Detectability of, Life on Extrasolar Planets; John A. Raven, Charles S. Cockell and Lisa Kaltenegger Environments Habitable by Extremophiles on Earth, the Solar System and Elsewhere; Joseph Seckbach and Julian Chela-Flores PART 7. HISTORY AND FRONTIERS OF ASTROBIOLOGY AND THE HUMANITIES Cultural Implications of the Search and Eventual Discovery of a Second Genesis; Roberto Artxaga Burgos and Julian Chela-Flores The Concept of Chemical Evolution before Oparin; Florence Raulin Cerceau A History of Origin of Life Ideas from Darwin to NASA; James E.Strick