Evolution biochemical nature

Arnold, S. and Houck, L. 1982. Courtship pheromones Evolution by natural and sexual selection, pp. 178—211, In Biochemical Aspects of Evolutionary Biology. (Ed. By N. Nittecki), Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago. Davis, W.C. and Twitty, V.C. 1964. Courtship behavior and reproductive isolation in the species of Taricha (Amphibia, Caudata). Copeia, 1964, 601-610. 

Plankensteiner K, Reiner H, Schranz B, Rode MB (2004) Angew Chem 116 1922, Int Ed 42 1886 Ponamperuma C, Sagan C, Mariner R (1963) Nature 199 222 Press F, Siver R (1994) Understanding Earth, Freeman and Company, NewYork Pullman B (1972) Electronic Factors in biochemical evolution. In Ponnamperuna C (Ed.) Exobiology. North Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam London, p 140 Raulin F (2000) Orig Life Evol Biosphere 30 116 Reid C, Orgel (1967) Nature 216 216... 

Buick R, Thornett JR, McNaughton NJ, Smith JB, Barley ME, Savage M (1995) Nature 375 574 Bungenberg de Jong H, Decker WA, Swan OS (1930) Biochem Z 221 392 Deamer DW (1998) Membrane Compartments in Prebiotic Evolution. In Brack A (Ed.) The Molecular Origins of Life. Cambridge University Press, p 189 Deamer DW, Dworkin JP (2005) Chemistry and Physics of Primitive Membranes. In Walde P (Ed.)... 

Embley TM, Horner DA, Hirt RP (1997) Anaerobic eukaryote evolution hydrogenosomes as biochemically modified mitochondria Trends Ecol Evol 12 437-441 Embley TM, van der Giezen M, Horner DS, Dyal PL, Bell S, Foster PG (2003) Hydrogenosomes, mitochondria and early eukaryotic evolution. IUBMB LIFE 55 387-395 Embley TM, Martin W (2006) Eukaryotic evolution, changes and challenges. Nature 440 623-630... 

Protein synthesis is a central function in cellular physiology and is the primary target of many naturally occurring antibiotics and toxins. Except as noted, these antibiotics inhibit protein synthesis in bacteria. The differences between bacterial and eukaryotic protein synthesis, though in some cases subtle, are sufficient that most of the compounds discussed below are relatively harmless to eukaryotic cells. Natural selection has favored the evolution of compounds that exploit minor differences in order to affect bacterial systems selectively, such that these biochemical weapons are synthesized by some microorganisms and are extremely toxic to others. Because nearly every step in protein synthesis can be specifically inhibited by one antibiotic or another, antibiotics have become valuable tools in the study of protein biosynthesis. 

Major advances in the knowledge of biochemical pathways and the establishment of computer-based predictions of three-dimensional structures of proteins led to the development of new microbiological methods, such as rational protein design or directed evolution, giving scientists the possibility to provide tailor-made biocatalysts [15-19]. These methodological works on the disclosure of new efficient biocatalysts are not explicitly mentioned in this review unless they were applied in natural product synthesis. Biotransformations do not always compete with known chemical syntheses, but rather complement the portfolio of catalytic methods in organic chemistry. 

Gillespie was published in 1991 with the enticing name The Causes of Molecular Evolution. But it does not concern specific biochemical systems. It is, like Kauffmans, a mathematical analysis that leaves out all of the specific features of organisms, reducing them to mathematical symbols and then manipulating the symbols. Nature is blanched. (I should add that, of course, mathematics is an extremely powerful tool. But math is useful to science only when the assumptions the mathematical analysis starts with are true.)... 

Incidentally, scientists who believe in God or a reality beyond nature are much more common than popular media stories lead one to believe— there is no reason to think that the figure of 90 percent of the general population that believes in God is much different for scientists. Ken Miller, whose argument from imperfection I analyzed in the last chapter, is like myself a Roman Catholic, and he makes the point in public talks that belief in evolution is quite compatible with his religious views. I agree with him that they are compatible.4 The compatibility or lack of compatibility, however, is irrelevant to the scientific question of whether Darwinian evolution of biochemical systems is true.)... 

---