Biological Evidence Against The Panspermia Theory

2/5/2015

Biological evidence against the panspermia theory

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Abstract
Keywords
1. The panspermia theory
2. The tRNA split genes of Nanoarchae…
3. The rationale underlying the analysis…
4. Conclusions
Acknowledgement
References

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Journal of Theoretical Biology
Volume 266, Issue 4, 21 October 2010, Pages 569–572

Biological evidence against the panspermia theory
Massimo Di Giulio

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doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.07.017

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Abstract
The following idea is analysed. Given that evolution on Earth seems to have passed through protocellular evolutionary stages of progenotes, this would appear to be incompatible with the panspermia theory because this observation would imply that the infection bringing life to the Earth started in these protocells, for which a low or null infective power is generally expected.

Keywords
Progenote; tRNA split genes; Biosynthetic pathways on tRNAs; Evolutionary transitions; Coevolution theory of the genetic code

1. The panspermia theory
The panspermia theory, that is the possibility that life arrived on our planet transported by meteorites
(lithopanspermia), was suggested in 1865 by the German physicist Hermann E. Richter (Raulin-Cerceau et al., 1998). In 1871, Lord Kelvin supported the same thesis that germs transported by meteorites might have infected the Earth (Thomson, 1871). In 1908, Arrhenius maintained that micro-organisms might have reached the Earth by means of an acceleration produced by stellar radiation

References: Arrhenius, 1908 S. Arrhenius Worlds in the MakingHarper and Row, New York (1908) Crick, 1993 F.H.C. Crick Foreword R.F. Gesteland, J.F. Atkins (Eds.), The RNA World, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (1993) Crick and Orgel, 1973 F.H.C Directed panspermia Icarus, 19 (1973), pp Danchin, 1989 A. Danchin Homeotopic transformation and the origin of translation Prog. Biophys. Mol. Biol., 54 (1989), pp. 81–86 Article |   PDF (496 K) | View Record in Scopus | Citing articles (47) de Duve, 1991 C Blueprint for a Cell: The Nature and Origin of LifeNeil Patterson Publishers, Carolina Biological Supply Company, Burlington, NC (1991) Di Giulio, 1992 M. Di Giulio On the origin of the transfer RNA molecule J. Theor. Biol., 159 (1992), pp. 199–214 Di Giulio, 1995 M J. Theor. Biol., 177 (1995), pp. 95–101 Article |   PDF (617 K) | View Record in Scopus | Citing articles (34) Di Giulio, 1999a M Di Giulio, 1999b M. Di Giulio The coevolution theory of the origin of the genetic code J. Mol. Evol., 48 (1999), pp. 253–254 Full Text via CrossRef Di Giulio, 2001 M. Di Giulio The non-universality of the genetic code: the universal ancestor was a progenote J. Theor. Biol., 209 (2001), pp. 345–349 Article |   PDF (195 K) | View Record in Scopus | Citing articles (10) Di Giulio, 2002 M J. Mol. Evol., 55 (2002), pp. 616–622 Di Giulio, 2004 M Di Giulio, 2006a M. Di Giulio The non-monophyletic origin of the tRNA molecule and the origin of genes only after the Di Giulio, 2006b Di Giulio, M., 2006b. Nanoarchaeum equitans is a living fossil.J. Theor. Biol. 242:257– 260. Di Giulio, 2008a M. Di Giulio Permuted tRNA genes of Cyanidioschyzon merolae, the origin of the tRNA molecule and the root