William F Martin – författare

This is a textbook covering the transition from energy releasing reactions on the early Earth to energy releasing reactions that fueled growth in the first microbial cells. It is for teachers and college students with an interest in microbiology, geosciences, biochemistry, evolution, or all of the above. The scope of the book is a quantum departure from existing “origin of life” books in that it starts with basic chemistry and links energy-releasing geochemical processes to the reactions of microbial metabolism. The text reaches across disciplines, providing students of the geosciences an origins/biology interface and bringing a geochemistry/origins interface to students of microbiology and evolution. Beginning with physical chemistry and transitioning across metabolic networks into microbiology, the timeline documents chemical events and organizational states in hydrothermal vents – the only environments known that bridge the gap between spontaneous chemical reactions that we can still observe in nature today and the physiology of microbes that live from H2, CO2, ammonia, phosphorus, inorganic salts and water. Life is a chemical reaction. What it is and how it arose are two sides of the same coin.Key FeaturesProvides clear connections between geochemical reactions and microbial metabolismFocuses on chemical mechanisms and transition metalsRichly illustrated with color figures explaining reactions and processesCovers the origin of the Earth, the origin of metabolism, the origin of protein synthesis and genetic information as well as the escape into the wild of the first free-living cells: Bacteria and Archaea

This is a textbook covering the transition from energy releasing reactions on the early Earth to energy releasing reactions that fueled growth in the first microbial cells. It is for teachers and college students with an interest in microbiology, geosciences, biochemistry, evolution, or all of the above. The scope of the book is a quantum departure from existing “origin of life” books in that it starts with basic chemistry and links energy-releasing geochemical processes to the reactions of microbial metabolism. The text reaches across disciplines, providing students of the geosciences an origins/biology interface and bringing a geochemistry/origins interface to students of microbiology and evolution. Beginning with physical chemistry and transitioning across metabolic networks into microbiology, the timeline documents chemical events and organizational states in hydrothermal vents – the only environments known that bridge the gap between spontaneous chemical reactions that we can still observe in nature today and the physiology of microbes that live from H2, CO2, ammonia, phosphorus, inorganic salts and water. Life is a chemical reaction. What it is and how it arose are two sides of the same coin.Key FeaturesProvides clear connections between geochemical reactions and microbial metabolismFocuses on chemical mechanisms and transition metalsRichly illustrated with color figures explaining reactions and processesCovers the origin of the Earth, the origin of metabolism, the origin of protein synthesis and genetic information as well as the escape into the wild of the first free-living cells: Bacteria and Archaea

Mitochondria are sometimes called the powerhouses of eukaryotic cells, because mitochondria are the site of ATP synthesis in the cell. ATP is the universal energy currency, it provides the power that runs all other life processes. Humans need oxygen to survive because of ATP synthesis in mitochondria. The sugars from our diet are converted to carbon dioxide in mitochondria in a process that requires oxygen. Just like a fire needs oxygen to burn, our mitochondria need oxygen to make ATP. From textbooks and popular literature one can easily get the impression that all mitochondria require oxygen. But that is not the case. There are many groups of organismsm known that make ATP in mitochondria without the help of oxygen. They have preserved biochemical relicts from the early evolution of eukaryotic cells, which took place during times in Earth history when there was hardly any oxygen avaiable, certainly not enough to breathe. How the anaerobic forms of mitochondria work, in which organisms they occur, and how the eukaryotic anaerobes that possess them fit into the larger picture of rising atmospheric oxygen during Earth history are the topic of this book.

The evolutionary origins of hydrogenosomes have been the subject of considerable debate. This volume closes the gap between the endosymbiotic theory for the origin of organelles and their incorporation into evolutionary theory. It reveals that identifying the genetic contribution to eukaryotes of the mitochondrial endosymbiosis, and revealing the functions of its descendent organelles, are key to understanding eukaryotic biology and evolution.