Origins and Evolution of Life: An Astrobiological Perspective

by Edited by Muriel Gargaud , Purificación López-Garcìa , Hervé Martin

• ISBN13: 9780521761314
• ISBN10: 052176131X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-02-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Devoted to exploring questions about the origin and evolution of life in our Universe, this highly interdisciplinary book brings together a broad array of scientists. Thirty chapters assembled in eight major sections convey the knowledge accumulated and the richness of the debates generated by this challenging theme. The text explores the latest research on the conditions and processes that led to the emergence of life on Earth and, by extension, perhaps on other planetary bodies. Diverse sources of knowledge are integrated, from astronomical and geophysical data, to the role of water, the origin of minimal life properties and the oldest traces of biological activity on our planet. This text will not only appeal to graduate students but to the large body of scientists interested in the challenges presented by the origin of life, its evolution, and its possible existence beyond Earth.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. viii
Foreword	p. xiii
Preface	p. xvii
What is life?
Problems raised by a definition of life	p. 3
Some remarks about uses of cosmological anthropic 'principles'	p. 14
Minimal cell: the biologist's point of view	p. 26
Minimal cell: the computer scientist's point of view	p. 47
Origins of life: computing and simulation approaches	p. 66
Astronomical and geophysical context of the emergence of life
Organic molecules in the interstellar medium	p. 85
Cosmochemical evolution and the origin of life: insights from meteorites	p. 98
Astronomical constraints on the emergence of life	p. 118
Formation of habitable planets	p. 136
The concept of the galactic habitable zone	p. 154
The young Sun and its influence on planetary atmospheres	p. 167
Climates of the Earth	p. 183
The role of water in the emergence of life
Liquid water: a necessary condition for all forms of life?	p. 205
The role of water in the formation and evolution of planets	p. 218
Water on Mars	p. 234
From non-living systems to life
Energetic constraints on prebiotic pathways: application to the emergence of translation	p. 247
Comparative genomics and early cell evolution	p. 259
Origin and evolution of metabolisms	p. 270
Mechanisms for life evolution
Molecular phylogeny: inferring the patterns of evolution	p. 291
Horizontal gene transfer: mechanisms and evolutionary consequences	p. 313
The role of symbiosis in eukaryotic evolution	p. 326
Life in extreme conditions
Life in extreme conditions: Deinococcus radiodurans, an organism able to survive prolonged desiccation and high doses of ionizing radiation	p. 347
Molecular effects of UV and ionizing radiations on DNA	p. 359
Molecular adaptations to life at high salt: lessons from Haloarcula marismortui	p. 375
Traces of life and biosignatures
Early life: nature, distribution and evolution	p. 391
Early eukaryotes in Precambrian oceans	p. 414
Biomineralization mechanisms	p. 450
Limits of life and the Biosphere: lessons from the detection of microorganisms in the deep sea and deep subsurface of the Earth	p. 469
Life elsewhere?
Titan and the Cassini-Huygens mission	p. 489
The role of terrestrial analogue environments in astrobiology	p. 507
Index	p. 523
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