Prebiological evolution

Today it is impossible to say whether prebiological evolution may have occurred in space, but for the moment there is no reason to exclude this option. Whatever hypotheses are retained, they must surely focus on the warmer regions (if we may use this word ) of the interstellar clouds, the very regions where star formation occurs. However, intense astrophysical searches for the simplest amino acid, glycine (NH2CH2COOH), in the dense cores of interstellar clouds have so far failed. 

It is worthwhile to note that since the information content of a sequence can be represented as a mathematically defined quantity, the whole process of evolution of biopolymer sequences can be specified in exact mathematical terms. The formulated fundamental problem is extremely difficult because of the absence of direct information on the early prebiological evolution. Therefore, of particular interest are toy models of evolution of sequences that show different possibilities for appearance of statistical complexity and of long-range correlations in the sequences. 

Volume 29. Comparative biochemistry, molecular evolution I. Comparative biochemistry, (a) Basic concepts, (b) Autotrophic metabolism, (c) Chemical needs in heterotrophs. (rf) Biochemical cycles in the biosphere, (e) Biochemistry and taxonomy. II. Molecular evolution, (a) Molecular adaptations to the physical environment, (b) Molecular adaptations to the biological environment, (c) Heteromor-phic aspects of molecular evolution, (d) Evolution of biochemical systems, physiological radiations, (e) Biosynthesis and phylogeny. (/) Paleobiochemistry. (g) Chemical evolution and prebiological evolution. Subject index. 

Besides, the theory of globular state and the coil-globule transition finds use in understanding the functional properties of protein molecules and in analyzing their role at the early prebiological evolution of living matter (Grosberg auid Shakhnovich, 1986). 

In addition to the direct utility of mathematical models in the analysis of complex chemical systems a unified conceptual framework is offered to the mathematical treatment of problems of chemical kinetics and related areas in biomathematics. Biochemical control processes, oscillation and fluctuation phenomena in neurochemical systems, coexistence and extinction in populations, prebiological evolution and certain ecological problems of Lake j Balaton can be treated in terms of this framework. Though the main body of/ the book deals with spatially homogeneous systems, spatial structures in chemical systems, pattern formation and morphogenesis related to reaction-diffusion models are also mentioned briefly. 

Delaye L, Lazcano A (2005) Prebiological evolution and the physics of the origin of life. Phys... 

G. Allen, Reflexive catalysis, a possible mechanism of molecular duplication in prebiological evolution. Amen Natur. 91, 65 (1957)... 

Dose K, Rauchfuss H (1972) On the electrophoretic behavior of thermal polymers of amino acids. In Rohlfing DL, Oparin AI (Eds.) Molecular Evolution Prebiological and Biological. Plenum,... 

Since then some progress has been made in this direction (completely independently of Ya.B. ) in violation of the central dogma of molecular genetics, influence of transport RNA on DNA was discovered. It is possible that the ideas of how reacting substances influence enzymes will prove significant in the study of the prebiological stage of evolution. 

Lipmann, F. Projecting backward from the present stage of evolution of biosynthesis, in The Origins of Prebiological Systems (ed.) Fox, S. W., p. 259, New York, Academic Press 1964... 

Bernstein WJ, Lemmon RM, Calvin M (1972) In Rolling DL, Oparin AI (eds) Molecular evolution, prebiological and biological. Plenum, New York, pp 151-155... 

In D.L. Rohlfing and A.I. Oparin (eds.) Molecular Evolution Prebiological and Biological The Origin of Life Problem—A Brief Critique (p. 14)... 

Szent-Gyorgyi, A. Molecular Evolution Prebiological and Biological. Plenum Press, New York. 1972. 

Much of present understanding of the earliest evolution of Earth s atmosphere can trace descent from Walker (1979) and references therein. The prebiological atmosphere (before the origin of life) was controlled principally by the composition of gases emitted from volcanoes. Emission of H2 in volcanic gases has contributed to net oxidation of the planet through time. This is achieved through several mechanisms. Simplest is hydrodynamic escape... 

Eschenmoser, A. Chemistry of potentially prebiological natural products. Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 24 (1994), 389-423. 

Rossler, O. E. (1983b). Deductive prebiology. In Molecular evolution and the protobiological paradigm eds K. Matsuno, K. Dose, K. Harada B. L. Rohlhng. Plenum Press, New York. 

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