Table of Contents

1. What Is Life? A Brief Historical Overview (A. Lazcano)
2. Reactions of the HCN-Tetramer with Aldehydes (K. Koch, W. B. Schweizer, A. Eschenmoser)
3. On a Hypothetical Generational Relationship between HCN and Constituents of the Reductive Citric Acid Cycle (A. Eschenmoser)
4. Chemistry and Selection (C. de Duve)
5. On the Chemistry and Evolution of the Pioneer Organism (G. Wachtershauser)
6. Physico-Chemical and Evolutionary Constraints for the Formation and Selection of First Biopolymers: Towards the Consensus Paradigm of the Abiogenic Origin of Life (A. Y. Mulkidjanian, M. Y. Galperin)
7. Chemical Aspects of Synthetic Biology (P. L. Luisi)
8. Errors and Alternatives in Prebiotic Replication and Catalysis (J. Ninio)
9. Evolution of Optimal Accuracy and Stability in Biological Systems (R. Holliday)
10. Ribozyme Catalysis of Metabolism in the RNA World (X. Chen, N. Li, A. D. Ellington)
11. RNAs in Extreme Environments (C. Torchet, M.-C. Maurel)
12. Intractable Mixtures and the Origin of Life
(A. W. Schwartz)
13. The First Steps of Chemical Evolution towards the Origin of Life (B. M. Rode, D. Fitz, T. Jakschitz)
14. From Interstellar Amino Acids to Prebiotic Catalytic Peptides: A Review (A. Brack)
15. The Chemistry That Preceded Life's Origin: A Study Guide from Meteorites (S. Pizzarello)
16. Formamide Chemistry and the Origin of Informational Polymers (R. Saladino, C. Crestini, F. Ciciriello, G. Costanzo, E. Di Mauro)
17. RNA: Prebiotic Product, or Biotic Invention? (C. stasi, F. F. Buchet,
M. A. Crowe, A. L. Parkes, M. W. Powner, J. M. Smith, J. D. Sutherland)
18. Peptide Nucleic Acids and the Origin of Life (P. E. Nielsen)
19. Chemical Etiology of Nucleic Acids: Aminopropyl Nucleic Acids (APNAs)
(D. Zhou, M. Froeyen, J. Rozenski, A. Van Aerschot, P. Herdewijn)
20. Nonenzymatic Recombination of RNA: Possible Mechanism for the Formation of Novel Sequences (A. V. Lutay, M. A. Zenkova, V. V. Vlassov)
21. Differences in Substrate Specificity of C(5)-Substituted or C(5)-Unsubstituted Pyrimidine Nucleotides by DNA Polymerases from Thermophilic Bacteria, Archaea, and Phages (H. Sawai, J. Nagashima, M.
Kuwahara, R. Kitagata, T. Tamura, I. Matsui)
22. Addressing the Problems of Base Pairing and Strand Cyclization in Template-Directed Synthesis. A Case for the Utility and Necessity of "Molecular Midwives" and Reversible Backbone Linkages for the Origin of proto-RNA (N. V. Hud, S. S. Jain, X. Li, D. G. Lynn)
23. Enzymatic Catalyzed DNA Synthesis using L-Asp-dGMP, L-Asp-dCMP, and L-Asp-dTMP (M. Terrazas, P. Marliere, P. Herdewijn)
24. Chemical Primer Extension: Individual Steps of Spontaneous Replication (J. A. Rojas Stutz, E. Kervio, C. Deck, C. Richert)
25. Conformational and Chiral Selection of Oligonucleotides (M. Froeyen, F. Morvan, J.-J. Vasseur, P. Nielsen, A. Van Aerschot, H. Rosemeyer, P. Herdewijn)
26. Index

About the Author

Piet Herdewijn is Professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and head of the laboratory of medicinal chemistry at the Rega Institute. He obtained his Ph.D. and habilitation from the same university. He was a postdoctoral fellow of the Humboldt Foundation at the University of Konstanz. He has conducted research in bioorganic and medicinal chemistry, mainly in the field of nucleosides, nucleotides, and nucleic acids, at the University of Leuven, the University of Ghent, and the Universite d'Evry-Val-d'Essonne.

Reviews

“This is a book that will tcst the chemical knowledge of biologists, while providing a rich variety of pathways to explore in thinking about the origin of the biosphere.” (The Quarterly Review of Biology, March 2009) "The editors have done their job in keeping their multitude of authors speaking with a common voice and a steady depth, and done an equally fine job of balancing opposing views … .Most of the key players are here, and most of the key theories are presented in illuminating and informative depth." (Chemistry World, January 2009) "For students it is intellectually appealing, for lecturers it includes valuable information and numerous colored figures, and researchers will find it stimulating." (Angewandte Chemie, October 20, 2008)