[ceevol] Darwin's Birthday Party - 11th Feb 2015
- From: CEE.Secretary <cee@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "ceevol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <ceevol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2015 14:18:44 +0000
Darwin's Birthday Party 2015
How Did Life Begin?
Wednesday, 11th February 2015 - 4:00pm
Natural History Museum
[Darwin's Birthday 2015 Poster]
Abstracts:
Polymerization in hydrothermal conditions: Darwin's prescient idea.
Dave Deamer, Department of Bimolecular Engineering, University of California,
Santa Cruz CA In an often quoted note to Joseph Hooker in 1871, Darwin
speculated that life may have begun in a "warm little pond." We have tested
this idea in simulations of fluctuating hydrothermal fields associated with
volcanism. We found that the chemical energy available in such conditions can
drive polymerization of ordinary mononucleotides into surprisingly long
oligonucleotides resembling ribonucleic acid (RNA). The polymerization occurs
in lipid environments so that the RNA-like polymers become encapsulated in
membranous compartments to form protocells, the first milestone on the
evolutionary path toward primitive cellular life.
Energy and Matter at the Origin of Life
Nick Lane, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, UCL There is a
paradox at the base of life. Membrane bioenergetics - the use of ion gradients
across membranes to drive carbon and energy metabolism - are universal, but
membranes are not. Radical differences between bacteria and archaea in membrane
chemistry and active ion pumping suggest that LUCA, the last universal common
ancestor, may have used natural proton gradients in alkaline hydrothermal vents
to drive growth. I will outline a possible scenario for the origin of life in
this environment, and present some experimental and modelling results which
suggest that proton gradients could have driven the transition from
geochemistry to biochemistry, and the deep divergence of archaea and bacteria.
Location:
Flett Lecture Theatre, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London -
Map<http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/getting-here.html>
More information can be found here:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/cee/events/darwinsbirthday
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