Prebiotic Evolution and Astrobiology

by J. Tze-Fei Wong, Antonio Lazcano

Overview

With the accelerating pace of genomic analysis and space exploration, the field of prebiotic evolution and astrobiology is poised for a century of unprecedented advances ahead, and there is a need for textbooks for students. The authors of this book, aware of the difficulty of covering the multifaceted subject by any single author, have decided to combine their efforts to provide a suitable book for beginning students from varied disciplines. The book stemmed from a meeting on Basic Questions about the Origin of Life at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture in Erice, Sicily in October 2006, where Pier Luigi Luisi laid out a balanced program to approach the subject. The present book basically follows that program. The many authors have produced most thoughtful, authoritative and readable chapters on their areas so that the student may grasp the background, objective and progress of the major research foci in the field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587063305
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/01/2009
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	10.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

J. Tze-Fei Wong, PhD, Applied Genomics Center, Fok Ying Tung Graduate School and Department of Biochemistry, Hong Kong Universiry of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China. Antonio Lazcano, PhD, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico.

Table of Contents

Preface 1. Introduction2. The Minimal Cell 3. Planetary Astrobiology—The Outer Solar System 4. Mars, the Astrobiological Target of the 21st Century? 5. Comets and Astrobiology 6. Meteorites and the Chemistry That Preceded Life’s Origin 7. Chirality, Homochirality and the Order of Biomolecular Interactions 8. The Primitive Earth 9. Biomolecules 10. The Dawn of the RNA World: RNA Polymerization from Monoribonucleotides under Prebiotically Plausible Conditions 11. Ribozymes and the Evolution of Metabolism 12. Precellular Evolution: Vesicles and Protocells 13. Split Genes, Ancestral Genes 14. Genetic Code 15. Root of Life