Origin of Life: "Proceedings of the Third ISSOL Meeting and the Sixth ICOL Meeting, Jerusalem, June 22-27, 1980"

This volume is a record of the 6th International Conference on the Origins of Life and the 3rd Meeting of the International Society for the Study of the Origins of Life. The conference was held under the auspices of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities at Jerusalem from June 22nd to June 27th 1980. A few weeks prior to the conference, Academician Aleksander Ivanovich Oparin passed away. Oparin, the father and founder of the study of the origins of life, proposed over 50 years ago that modern biological molecules had abidogical origins in the past, thus the beginning of life on Earth was preceded by a long period of abiogenic molecular evolution. Oparin was planning to report on his latest work in the opening session of the meeting - "Natural Selection: A Leading Factor in Transition from the Non-Living Matter to Life". This lecture will never be delivered. In Hebrew we say of those who have died "may their memory be bound with the bonds of eternal life". For Aleksander Ivanovich Oparin those words have particular significance, for surely his pioneering work will endure as long as the spirit of scientific enquiry prevails. This meeting was dedicated to the memory of Aleksander Ivanovich Oparin. Front Matter....Pages i-xv Interstellar Molecules and the Origin of Life....Pages 1-9 Molecules in Interstellar Clouds....Pages 11-17 On the Origin of Organic Molecules in Interstellar Space and Some of its Consequences....Pages 19-25 Comets and the Origin of Life....Pages 27-32 Nature and Origin of Organic Molecules in Comets....Pages 33-42 Liquid Water on a Planet over Cosmic Periods....Pages 43-50 Organic Analysis of the Antarctic Carbonaceous Chondrites....Pages 51-57 Nitrogen Compounds in Carbonaceous Meteorites: A Reassessment....Pages 59-64 Abiotic Organic Synthesis in Space....Pages 65-71 Formation of Prebiotic Precursors from Model Reducing Atmospheres: Role of Hydrogen Escape....Pages 73-82 Organic Chemical Evolution of Reducing Model of the Atmosphere of the Primitive Earth. Role of UV Light and Electric Discharges....Pages 83-92 Far UV Photolysis of Methane-Water Gaseous Mixtures and the Prebiotic Synthesis of Aldehydes....Pages 93-100 Photolysis of CH 4 -NH 3 Mixtures and PH 3 as Models for the Photochemical Transformations on the Primitive Earth and Jupiter....Pages 101-105 Possible Role of Phosphine in Chemical Evolution....Pages 107-114 Clays as Prebiotic Photocatalysts....Pages 115-124 Clay-Mediated Reactions of HCN Oligomers. The Effect of the Oxidation State of the Clay....Pages 125-128 Chemical Evolution and Plate Tectonics....Pages 129-134 The Strecker Synthesis in the Primitive Ocean....Pages 135-141 Photoassisted Carbon Dioxide Reduction and Formation of Two- and Three-Carbon Compounds....Pages 143-150 Melanoidin Polymers as Possible Oxygen Sinks in the Pre-Biotic Oceans....Pages 151-156 Formation of Energy Rich Phosphate in Fenton’s Reaction....Pages 157-164 Abiotic Synthesis of Phosphoric Esters of Monosaccharides According to the “Cold Model”....Pages 165-172 Synthesis and Degradation of Amino Acids by Contact Glow Discharge Electrolysis, a Possible Route for Prebiotic Formation of Bio-Organic Compounds....Pages 173-180 Genesis of Amino Acids in the Primeval Sea: Formation of Amino Acids from Sugars and Ammonia in a Modified Sea Medium....Pages 181-187 Porphyrin-Like Compounds Genesis under Simulated Abiotic Conditions....Pages 189-196 The Role of Analytical Procedures in the Formation of Biochemicals From Experiments Simulating the Chemical Evolution of Primeval Earth....Pages 197-199 Reduction of Thionucleosides: A Prebiotic Pathway to Deoxyribonucleosides....Pages 201-207 Factors Influencing the Rate of Non-Enzymatic Activation of Carboxylic and Amino Acids by ATP....Pages 209-215 HCN Oligomerization - Isolation and Preliminary Characterization of a New Precursor of Adenine....Pages 217-223 Cyanamide Mediated Syntheses of LEU, ALA, and PHE Peptides Under Plausible Primitive Earth Conditions....Pages 225-232 Template-Directed Synthesis of Oligoguanylic Acids- Metal Ion Catalysis....Pages 233-239 Chemical Evolution of Model Systems of Primeval Earth Periphery and Thermal Polymerisation of Aqueous Solutions of Cyanides....Pages 241-246 The Polymerization Products of α-Aminopropionitrile. The Component Separation Using Cation-Exchange Resin....Pages 247-254 The Cold Theory of the Origins of Life. Assumptions for the Theory and Experimental Evidence....Pages 255-262 The Appearance of Protobiopolymers and Protomembranes in Accordance with the “Cold Theory” of the Origins of Life....Pages 263-269 Terrestrial Evolution of Polymerization of Amino Acids: Heat to ATP....Pages 271-276 Potentiometric Titration Behavior of Polyamino Acids Prepared by Thermal Polycondensation....Pages 277-284 On the Polycondensation of Amino Acid Adenylates on Montmorillonites....Pages 285-293 Polymerization of Serine Guanylate in the Presence of Montmorillonite....Pages 295-299 Quantum Mechanical Conformational Analysis of Aminoacyladenylates: Implication in the Origin of Life....Pages 301-308 Environmental Conditions for the Formation of Marigranules and Kinetic Studies on the Formation....Pages 309-312 Membrane Lipids and the Origin of Life....Pages 313-322 Resolution of Underivatized Amino Acids by High Pressure Liquid Chromatography, Using Chiral Eluants....Pages 323-330 Stereoselective Interactions of Small Biological Molecules....Pages 331-336 Possible Selective Adsorption of Enantiomers by Na-Montmorrillonite....Pages 337-346 Spontaneous and Induced Generation of Optical Activity in Racemic 4, 4′-Dimethyl-1, 1′-Binaphthyl....Pages 347-353 Amplification of Optical Activity by Crystallization in the Presence of Tailor-Made Additives. The “Inversion Rule”....Pages 355-364 Generation and Amplification of Optically Active Compounds Via Inclusion in Chiral Tri-O-Thymotide Clathrates....Pages 365-372 Asymmetrical Radical Formation in β-Irradiated D- and L-Alanines....Pages 373-378 A New Experiment to Investigate the Origin of Optical Activity Using a Low Energy Positron Beam of Controlled Helicity....Pages 379-384 Competition, Coexistence and Irreversibility in Models of Early Molecular Evolution....Pages 385-392 Histidyl-Histidine Catalysis of Glycine Condensation in Fluctuating Clay Environments....Pages 393-397 A Theory for the Origin of a Self-Reproducing Chemical System by Natural Selection from Short, Random Oligomers....Pages 399-404 A Mathematical Method for the Enumeration of Doublet Codes....Pages 405-413 Evolving Nucleotide Binding Surfaces....Pages 415-422 Origin and Evolution of the Genetic Code....Pages 423-430 The Origin and Evolution of the Genetic Code....Pages 431-437 Evolutionary Processes of the Genetic Code....Pages 439-446 Summary of Evidence for an Anticodonic Basis for the Origin of the Genetic Code....Pages 447-456 Primitive Transfer RNA and Origin of Darwinian System....Pages 457-464 Evolution of the Terrestrial Atmosphere and its Fossils in Biosystems....Pages 465-471 Organic Geochemistry of the ISUA Supracrustals....Pages 473-479 Secondary Structures of Polypeptides as Evolutionary “Growing Points”....Pages 481-486 Search for Primitive Replicative Properties on Early Polypeptides....Pages 487-493 Emergence of Flavin Catalysis. An Approach Based on the Concept of Bioorganic Evolution....Pages 495-504 Selective Acylability of Amino Acids by Non-Enzymic Model Reactions of Biochemical Transacylations....Pages 505-511 Experiments on Transfer of Organic Molecular Information Into Crystal Lattice Superstructures....Pages 513-520 Phylogenetic Sequence of Metabolic Pathways in Precambrian Cellular Life....Pages 521-528 Coupling to Solar Energy: Sensitized Photoreactions - The Primary Source of Self-Organization....Pages 529-536 Ultraviolet Selection Pressure in the Prephanerozoic....Pages 537-542 DNA-Protein Complex from an Extreme Halophile: A Histone-Like Protein in Archaebacteria....Pages 543-549 The Evolution of Blue-Greens and the Origins of Chloroplasts....Pages 551-558 Evolution of the Rhodospirillaceae and Mitochondria: A View Based on Sequence Data....Pages 559-566 On the Origin of Photosynthetic Eukaryotic Cells: Cyanidium Caldarium as a “Bridge” Alga Between Prokaryotic Cyanobacteria and Eukaryotic Rhodophytes: Evidence from Environmental, Polysaccharide Biochemistry and Ultrastructural Studies....Pages 567-574 Microbial Life in Cold Saline Environments....Pages 575-582 Mutagens and Carcinogens: Occurrence and Role During Chemical and Biological Evolution....Pages 583-588 Could the Biochemical Metabolism be Different?....Pages 589-599 Back Matter....Pages 601-613 Proceedings of the Third ISSOL Meeting and the Sixth ICOL Meeting, Jerusalem, 22-27 June 1980