Origins of Life

, by Deamer, David W.; Fleischaker, Gail R.

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ISBN: 9780867201819 | 0867201819
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 1/1/1994

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University of California, Davis. A collection of journal article reprints with both scientific and historical significance, intended as a supplement to undergraduate courses in the biological sciences.

Foreword
Preface
Authors and Articles Reprinted
Introduction: Origins of Life: The Central Concepts
Pasteur, scientific demonstration, and spontaneous generation	p. 3
Oparin, Vernadsky, and the biogeochemical system	p. 3
Haldane, Urey, Miller, and molecular synthesis	p. 3
Origins of life as a scientific research field	p. 4
Research themes in biogenesis	p. 4
Forty-six papers on life's origins	p. 4
The Early-Earth Environment
Plausibility arguments and the origin of life	p. 9
When did life begin?	p. 9
What was the source of the Earth's primitive atmosphere?	p. 10
Extraterrestrial infall provided carbon compounds	p. 10
Prebiotic temperature ranges	p. 11
Plausible sites of origin were not at equilibrium	p. 11
What were plausible substrates for early synthesis and concentration of organic compounds?	p. 12
Reprinted papers on the early-Earth environment	p. 12
Early terrestrial conditions that may have favored organic synthesis	p. 15
The origin of life	p. 31
The origin of life	p. 73
On the early chemical history of the Earth and the origin of life	p. 83
The prebiological paleoatmosphere: Stability and composition	p. 97
Possible limits on the composition of the Archaean ocean	p. 113
Climatic consequences of very high carbon dioxide levels in the Earth's early atmosphere	p. 115
Annihilation of ecosystems by large asteroid impacts on the early Earth	p. 119
Endogenous production, exogenous delivery and impact-shock synthesis of organic molecules: An inventory for the origins of life	p. 123
Prebiotic Chemistry
What were the sources of organic compounds?	p. 133
Sources and sinks of organics	p. 133
Monomers include amino acids, simple carbohydrates, lipid-like molecules, purines, and pyrimidines	p. 133
Organic synthesis can occur under simulated prebiotic environments	p. 134
The source of some monomers is problematic	p. 134
Organic compounds are present in comets and meteorites	p. 135
Meteoritic organics confirm earlier conjectures about prebiotic chemistry	p. 135
Polymers are condensation products	p. 136
Could mineral surfaces have been involved?	p. 136
Reprinted papers on prebiotic chemistry	p. 137
Remarks on the photochemistry of the Earth's atmosphere	p. 141
Reduction of carbon dioxide in aqueous solutions by ionizing radiation	p. 143
A production of amino acids under possible primitive Earth conditions	p. 147
Organic compound synthesis on the primitive Earth	p. 149
Mechanism of synthesis of adenine from hydrogen cyanide under possible primitive Earth conditions	p. 157
HCN: A plausible source of purines, pyrimidines and amino acids on the primitive Earth	p. 159
Photochemical production of formaldehyde in Earth's primitive atmosphere	p. 179
Why nature chose phosphates	p. 183
Thermal copolymerization of amino acids to a product resembling protein	p. 189
Montmorillonite: A multifunctional mineral catalyst for the prebiological formation of phosphate esters	p. 191
Synthesis of phospholipids and membranes in prebiotic conditions	p. 205
Evidence for extraterrestrial amino-acids and hydrocarbons in the Murchison meteorite	p. 209
Cometary delivery of organic molecules to the early Earth	p. 213
Pre-biotic organic matter from comets and asteroids	p. 221
Self-Assembly of Supramolecular Systems
Some self-assembly processes involve hydrogen bonding	p. 227
Chirality may have evolved through self-assembly processes	p. 227
Nonpolar forces also stabilize supramolecular assembly: Phase separation	p. 228
Amphiphilic molecules form membranes	p. 228
Self-assembling structures	p. 228
Lipid bilayer membranes readily encapsulate large molecules	p. 229
Permeability constraints on primitive cell functions	p. 230
The self-assembly of functioning protocells	p. 230
Reprinted papers on self-assembly	p. 231
The hydrophobic effect and the organization of living matter	p. 233
Diffusion of univalent ions across the lamellae of swollen phospholipids	p. 241
Encapsulation of macromolecules by lipid vesicles under simulated prebiotic conditions	p. 259
The chemical logic of a minimum protocell	p. 263
Amphiphilic components of the Murchison carbonaceous chondrite: Surface properties and membrane formation	p. 271
Energetics of Life's Origins
Energy sources	p. 291
Chemical activation and catalyzed reaction pathways	p. 291
Was light a primary energy source?	p. 292
Electron transport and proton gradients are sources of free energy	p. 292
Reprinted papers on energy sources and utilization	p. 293
Energy yields for hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde syntheses: The HCN and amino acid concentrations in the primitive ocean	p. 295
Davy's electrochemistry: Nature's protochemistry	p. 309
Phase separation, charge separation and biogenesis	p. 317
Photodriven transmembrane charge separation and electron transfer by a carotenoporphyrin-quinone triad	p. 325
Speculations on the evolution of ion transport mechanisms	p. 329
Bioinformational Molecules
Contemporary forms of life use a closed loop of information and catalysis	p. 337
How did the first bioinformational molecules arise?	p. 337
Replication may occur in the absence of enzyme catalysis	p. 338
There may have been an RNA world	p. 338
Reprinted papers on bioinformational molecules	p. 339
On the evolution of biochemical syntheses	p. 341
Hydrolytic stability of helical RNA: A selective advantage for the natural 3',5'-bond	p. 347
Early chemical evolution of nucleic acids: A theoretical model	p. 353
A nonenzymatic RNA polymerase model	p. 355
Template-directed synthesis of novel, nucleic acid-like structures	p. 359
A self-replicating system	p. 363
The intervening sequence RNA of Tetrahymena is an enzyme	p. 365
A model for the RNA-catalyzed replication of RNA	p. 371
The RNA world	p. 375
RNA-catalysed synthesis of complementary-strand RNA	p. 377
Unusual resistance of peptidyl transferase to protein extraction procedures	p. 381
Aminoacyl esterase activity of the Tetrahymena ribozyme	p. 385
The rise and fall of the RNA world	p. 391
References on the Origins of Life
The early-Earth environment	p. 405
Prebiotic chemistry	p. 407
Self-assembly of supramolecular systems	p. 410
Energetics of life's origins	p. 412
Bioinformational molecules	p. 414
Index of Authors Cited	p. 419
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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Origins of Life

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