Origin of cellular life

Surface origin hypothesis

-the first cells arouse out of primordial soup (on the origin of species Darwin)
-temperature fluctuations, meteor impacts, dust clouds, intense uv radiation make a
surface origin for life unlikely
Subsurface origin hypothesis
-life originated on ocean floor
-hydrothermal mounds started life
RNA life (self-replicating)
Enzymatic activity of proteins
DNA taking on a genetic coding function, leading to cellular life
Last Universal Cellular Ancestor
4.5 Bya- Earth is sterile
3.0- Anoxic environment
Cyanobacteria can produce oxygen
Early attempts at taxonomy: all plants and animals
Whitaker scheme (late 20th century) Five kingdoms
-Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista and Monera
-Monera are prokaryotes
-prokaryotes look very similar
-convergent evolution a problem
-unrelated bacteria develop similar physical and biochemical traits
concept of species no sexual reproduction, no interbreeding
In order to understand relatedness, view on DNA level
-similar sequences, mutations give clues
-which genes? Bacteria swap them around
-Carl Woese and 16S rRNA
-ribosomal RNA genes cannot afford to mutate much
-change would interfere with protein synthesis
-change is very gradual
3 DOMAINS
Bacteria, Archaea Eukarya
All prokaryotes are not phylogenetically related
Archaea more closely related to eukarya than bacteria
LUCA resides very early within the bacteria domain
Phenetic and Phylogenetic Systems
Phenetic system
-groups organisms based on mutual similarity of ohenotypic characteristics
-may or may not match
Phylogenetic system

-evolutionary heritage
- (mycoplasma and bacilla)
Numerical taxonomy
-Phenetic and Phylogenetic)
-variety of characteristics
-relies on similarity coefficients and match organisms
Molecular taxonomy
-genes mutate randomly
-neutral, do not lead to any obvious disadvantage to strain
-all progeny carry the mutation
Naming bact
-occurrence, role, pathogenicity, special characteristics, country name, scientist
Important terms in microbial taxonomy
Strain- descended from a single organism
-different isolates may be same species but are different strains; often have slight
differences
-a population of organisms that descends from a single organism or pure
culture/clone
Type strain- first strain isolated or best characterized
-more fully characterized than others
-standard by which other strains thought to be the same can be compared
Variants
Biovars
-biochemical physiological
Morphovars
Serovars
-antegenic properties
morphological features
-form, elevation, margin
-mechanism of motility
endospore shape and location
cellular incisions
color/pigment water soluble (medium color changes)
Chemical composition
High in fat content- m tuberculosis
DNA hybridization
Strand of comparison