© 2010 • 318 pp., illus. (47 color, 50 b/w), index
Trim size: 7” x 10”
Hardcover • $135 33.75 • ISBN  978-1-936113-04-0
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Life arose on Earth more than three billion years ago. How the first self-replicating systems emerged from prebiotic chemistry and evolved into primitive cell-like entities is an area of intense research, spanning molecular and cellular biology, organic chemistry, cosmology, geology, and atmospheric science.

Written and edited by experts in the field, this volume provides a comprehensive account of the environment of the early Earth and the mechanisms by which the organic molecules present may have self-assembled to form replicating material such as RNA and other polymers. The contributors examine the energetic requirements for this process and focus in particular on the essential role of semi-permeable compartments in containment of primitive genetic systems.

Also covered in the book are new synthetic approaches for fabricating cellular systems, the potentially extraterrestrial origin of life’s building blocks, and the possibility that life once existed on Mars. Comprising five sections – Setting the Stage, Components of First Life, Primitive Systems, First Polymers, and Transition to a Microbial World – it is a vital reference for all scientists interested in the origin of life on Earth and the likelihood that it has arisen on other planets

  “...the volume is an excellent compendium of present day thinking about aspects of life’s origins. Overall, I recommend this volume to anyone who wants to comprehend, and have an appreciation of, the complexities involved in trying to unravel how life began on Earth and whether this could occur elsewhere.”
      —The Quarterly Review of Biology

Preface

Introduction and Overview

David Deamer and Jack W. Szostak

Historical Development of Origins Research

Antonio Lazcano

SETTING THE STAGE

Cosmic Carbon Chemistry: From the Interstellar Medium to the Early Earth

Pascale Ehrenfreund and Jan Cami

The Hadean-Archaean Environment

Norman H. Sleep

Earth’s Earliest Atmospheres

Kevin Zahnle, Laura Schaefer, and Bruce Fegley

COMPONENTS OF FIRST LIFE

Planetary Organic Chemistry and the Origins of Biomolecules

Steven A. Benner, Hyo-Joong Kim, Myung-Jung Kim, and Alonso Ricardo

The Organic Composition of Carbonaceous Meteorites: The Evolutionary Story Ahead of Biochemistry

Sandra Pizzarello and Everett Shock

Ribonucleotides

John D. Sutherland

The Origin of Biological Homochirality

Donna G. Blackmond

PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS

Bioenergetics and Life’s Origins

David Deamer and Arthur L. Weber

Mineral Surfaces, Geochemical Complexities, and the Origins of Life

Robert M. Hazen and Dimitri A. Sverjensky

From Self-Assembled Vesicles to Protocells

Irene A. Chen and Peter Walde

Membrane Transport in Primitive Cells

Sheref S. Mansy

FIRST POLYMERS

Primitive Genetic Polymers

Aaron E. Engelhart and Nicholas V. Hud

Closing the Circle: Replicating RNAwith RNA

Leslie K.L. Cheng and Peter J. Unrau

The Origins of Cellular Life

Jason P. Schrum, Ting F. Zhu, and Jack W. Szostak

TRANSITION TO A MICROBIALWORLD

Origin and Evolution of the Ribosome

George E. Fox

Deep Phylogeny—How a Tree Can Help Characterize Early Life on Earth

Eric A. Gaucher, James T. Kratzer, and Ryan N. Randall

Constructing Partial Models of Cells

Norikazu Ichihashi, Tomoaki Matsuura, Hiroshi Kita, Takeshi Sunami, Hiroaki Suzuki, and Tetsuya Yomo

An Origin of Life on Mars

Christopher P. McKay

Index