The Genetic Code and the Origin of Life
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Edited By:Lluis Ribas de PouplanaScripps Research Institute ISBN: 978-0-306-47843-7 Published: 2004-10-04 This book may be purchased as an eBook (pdf) for $99, or individual chapters (pdf) may be purchased from the list below for $19. |
Chapters available from this book
The Evolutionary History of the Translation Machinery
George E. Fox and Ashwinikumar K. Naik
Current theories on the origin of life envision an RNA World as the culmination of chemical evolution. The extent of this RNA World, and the biochemical complexity of the progenotes1 that populated it, is subject to much debate. It, nevertheless, is likely a point of agreement among workers in th...
Adaptive Evolution of the Genetic Code
R.D. Knight, S. J. Freeland and L.F. Landweber
All known genetic codes use 4 bases and 20 amino acids, but many other bases and amino acids have been synthesized and/or found in organisms. The coding relation ships between particular trinucleotides and amino acids can and have evolved, as shown by variants in both mitochondrial and nuclear li...
Ribozyme-Catalyzed Genetics
Donald H. Burke
RNA World research in recent years has sought to establish whether ribozymes have the catalytic versatility and potency to transmit genetic information and to sustain a credible metabolism. At a minimum, organisms from just before the Protein Revolution would have had to catalyze nucleotide polym...
The Nature of the Last Common Ancestor
Luis Delaye, Arturo Becerra, and Antonio Lazcano
Until the late 1970’s cellular evolution was assumed to be a continuous, unbroken chain of progressive transformations that begun with the emergence of life itself and contin ued until the endosymbiotic origin of eukaryotes marked the major biological discontinuity. This scheme was challenged whe...
Extant Variations in the Genetic Code
Manuel A.S. Santos and Mick F. Tuite
The discovery in the 1960s of an identical genetic code in Escherichia coli, viruses and mammalian cells suggested that all living organisms use the same genetic code. The existence of a universal genetic code prompted Crick1 to propose the “Frozen Accident Theory” which states that the genetic c...
Functional Evolution of Ribosomes
C. Briones and R. Amils
Protein synthesis is a complex process that constitutes the last step of gene expression. The first studies that correlated this cellular activity with certain “ribonucleoprotein par ticles” present in the microsomal fraction are dated from the mid-fifties.1 Subsequently, extensive research was c...
Expanding the Genetic Code in Vitroand in Vivo
Thomas J. Magliery and David R. Liu
Insight into biological function at almost every level, from catalysis to signal transductionto structure, requires a detailed understanding of proteins, biopolymers of remarkable di-versity assembled from only twenty amino acid building blocks. Site-directed mutagenesis—the process by which an amin...
Origin and Evolution of DNA and DNA Replication Machineries
Patrick Forterre, Jonathan Filée and Hannu Myllykallio
The transition from the RNA to the DNA world was a major event in the history of life. The invention of DNA required the appearance of enzymatic activities for both synthe- sis of DNA precursors, retro-transcription of RNA templates and replication of single- and double-stranded DNA molecules. ...
Early Evolution of DNA Repair Mechanisms
Jocelyne DiRuggiero and Frank T. Robb
DNA repair is critical for the maintenance of genome integrity and replication fidelity in all cells, and therefore was arguably of major importance in the Last Universal Cellular Ancestor (LUCA) as well. Archaea, and hyperthermophiles in particular, are well suited for studying early DNA repa...
The Early Earth
Oliver Botta and Jeffrey L. Bada
The Earth is so far the only place in the Universe where life is known to exist. Is the Earth special, or are there other places both in our own solar system and beyond where life may have originated and either became extinct or still exists today? Hopefully, in the not to distant future we ma...
Reconstructing the Universal Tree of Life
James R. Brown
The universal tree of life depicts the evolutionary relationships of all living things by grouping them into one of three Domains of life; the Archaea (archaebacteria), Bacteria (eubacteria) and Eucarya (eukaryotes). The “canonical universal tree” topology is actually a composite of phylogenies...
The Scope of Selection
Michael Yarus and Rob Knight
We have estimated the maximal size for an RNA motif recoverable from selection-amplification for new RNA activities, under conditions that span those in present laboratory use. The number of sequence pieces from which an active site is folded (the modularity) is a crucial variable. Routi...
