bit by bit the darwinian basis of life一点点生命的达尔文主义的基础.pdfVIP

Essay Bit by Bit: The Darwinian Basis of Life Gerald F. Joyce1,2* 1 Department of Molecular Biology, Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America, 2 Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America Abstract: All known examples of toxic environment.) Didn’t Craig Venter probability assessment would be more life belong to the same biology, but and his colleagues recently create a syn- meaningful if there were even one more there is increasing enthusiasm thetic bacterial cell [3], ‘‘the first self- genuine example of life, whether discov- among astronomers, astrobiolo- replicating species we’ve had on the planet ered in space, on Earth, or in a test tube. If gists, and synthetic biologists that whose parent is a computer’’? (No, its that entity had all of the properties of other forms of life may soon be parent is Mycoplasma mycoides and its genome terrestrial life described above, then one discovered or synthesized. This was dutifully reconstructed through DNA would conclude that, indeed, we are not enthusiasm should be tempered synthesis and PCR amplification.) alone. But what if the entity had only some by the fact that the probability for Why are we so confused (or so lonely) of those properties? What if it could self- life to originate is not known. As a that we have such trouble distinguishing reproduce, directing the assembly of guiding pri