Origin of life/Bibliography

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Books

• Oparin AI. (1953) The Origin of Life. New York: Dover Publications.

• Oparin AI, Synge A. (1957) The Origin of Life on the Earth. New York: Academic Press Inc..

• Cairns-Smith AG. (1990) Seven Clues to the Origin of Life: A Scientific Detective Story. New York: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 13-978-0-521-39828-2; 10-0-521-39828-2.

• Rosen R. (1991) Life Itself: A Comprehensive Inquiry Into The Nature, Origin, And Fabrication Of Life. New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-07565-0.

• De Duve, Christian. (1995) Vital dust: life as a cosmic imperative. New York: Basic Books. 362 p. ISBN 0465090443. | [Full-Text | Google Books preview.

• Brack A. (1998) The molecular origins of life: assembling pieces of the puzzle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521564123.

• Smith JM, Szathmary E. (1999) The Origins of Life: From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language. New York: Oxford University Press.

• Kauffman SA. (2000) Investigations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 019512104X (cloth : acid-free paper).

• Ganti T, Griesemer Jc, Szathmary Ec. (2003) The Principles of Life. New York: Oxford University press, ISBN 9780198507260.

• Hazen RM. (2005) Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origin. Washington,DC: Joseph Henry Press, ISBN 0309094321.

Journal articles

• Nicholson WL (2009). "Ancient micronauts: interplanetary transport of microbes by cosmic impacts.". Trends Microbiol 17 (6): 243-50. DOI:10.1016/j.tim.2009.03.004. PMID 19464895. Research Blogging. ^[e]

Abstract: Recent developments in microbiology, geophysics and planetary sciences raise the possibility that the planets in our solar system might not be biologically isolated. Hence, the possibility of lithopanspermia (the interplanetary transport of microbial passengers inside rocks) is presently being re-evaluated, with implications for the origin and evolution of life on Earth and within our solar system. Here, I summarize our current understanding of the physics of impacts, space transport of meteorites, and the potentiality of microorganisms to undergo and survive interplanetary transfer.

• Pross, A. (2003), "The driving force for life's emergence: kinetic and thermodynamic considerations", J Theor Biol 220 (3): 393–406, DOI:10.1006/jtbi.2003.3178 ^[e]

• Itay Budina, Jack W. Szostaka. (2011) Physical effects underlying the transition from primitive to modern cell membranes. PNAS 108(13):5249-5254.

• • Abstract:
  • To understand the emergence of Darwinian evolution, it is necessary to identify physical mechanisms that enabled primitive cells to compete with one another.
  • Whereas all modern cell membranes are composed primarily of diacyl or dialkyl glycerol phospholipids, the first cell membranes are thought to have self-assembled from simple, single-chain lipids synthesized in the environment. We asked what selective advantage could have driven the transition from primitive to modern membranes, especially during early stages characterized by low levels of membrane phospholipid.
  • Here we demonstrate that surprisingly low levels of phospholipids can drive protocell membrane growth during competition for single-chain lipids. Growth results from the decreasing fatty acid efflux from membranes with increasing phospholipid content.
  • The ability to synthesize phospholipids from single-chain substrates would have therefore been highly advantageous for early cells competing for a limited supply of lipids.
  • We show that the resulting increase in membrane phospholipid content would have led to a cascade of new selective pressures for the evolution of metabolic and transport machinery to overcome the reduced membrane permeability of diacyl lipid membranes. The evolution of phospholipid membranes could thus have been a deterministic outcome of intrinsic physical processes and a key driving force for early cellular evolution.

• Hanczyc MM, Toyota T, Ikegami T, Packard N, Sugawara T. (2007) Fatty Acid Chemistry at the Oil-Water Interface: Self-Propelled Oil Droplets. J Am Chem Soc 129:9386-91. | Abstract/Full-Text.
  • Conclusion: We have demonstrated a self-propelled oil droplet system based on fatty acid chemistry. This system exhibits symmetry breaking with four characteristics: directional internal convective flow, directional external water flow, directional product release, and a self-generated pH gradient. The simple ingredients—oil with acid-producing precursor and alkaline water with surfactant—work in concert to produce sustained autonomous motion. The supramolecular structure itself contains the chemistry that fuels its movement. The system produces not only more surfactant but protons resulting in acidification of the environment immediately surrounding the oil droplet. The droplet successfully moves away from this waste product into fresh unmodified alkaline solution and even displays a primitive form of chemotaxis. Although this mechanism of movement is unlike mechanisms of motility employed by natural cellular life, directed motion by convection may be useful in an artificial cell context in the avoidance or delay of chemical equilibrium.
  • See also: In the beginning... was Pac-Man: Simple oil drops show that if you get the conditions right, basic life may emerge almost fully formed. New Scientist 5 March 2011.
• Tracey A. Lincoln and Gerald F. Joyce, (2009) Self-Sustained Replication of an RNA Enzyme. Science 27 February 2009:ol. 323. no. 5918, pp. 1229 - 1232. DOI: 10.1126/science.1167856

• 92: Life's Fifth Element Came From Meteors

• Morowitz,H.J.; Srinivasan,V.; Smith,E. (2010) Ligand field theory and the origin of life as an emergent feature of the periodic table of elements. Biological Bulletin 219:1-6.
  • Abstract: The assumption that all biological catalysts are either proteins or ribozymes leads to an outstanding enigma of biogenesis-how to determine the synthetic pathways to the monomers for the efficient formation of catalytic macromolecules in the absence of any such macromolecules. The last 60 years have witnessed chemists developing an understanding of organocatalysis and ligand field theory, both of which give demonstrable low-molecular-weight catalysts. We assume that transition-metal-ligand complexes are likely to have occurred in the deep ocean trenches by the combination of naturally occurring oceanic metals and ligands synthesized from the emergent CO(2), H(2), NH(3), H(2)S, and H(3)PO(4). We are now in a position to investigate experimentally the metal-ligand complexes, their catalytic function, and the reaction networks that could have played a role in the development of metabolism and life itself.
  • See also: Transition metal catalysts could be key to origin of life, scientists report. PhysOrg.com September 3, 2010.

Blogs

• Earth Raised up Its Magnetic Shield Early, Protecting Water and Emerging Life

• Dust Collected From Comet Contains a Key Ingredient of Life

• Devastating Meteorite Strikes May Have Created Earth’s First Organic Molecules

• The Earth’s Oldest Diamonds May Show Evidence of Earliest L-ife