Metal Ions and the Route to Life

Wolfgang Nitschke, Simon Duval

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040357484
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Microbiology

Volume 28, entitled Metal Ions and the Route to Life, of the series Metal Ions in Life Sciences, advocates for the prime importance of the recognition of metal ions and metal-bearing minerals in the transition from inanimate matter to first life on our planet. Unlike the relatively unreactive organic molecules, the traditional protagonists of orthodox origin-of-life hypotheses, metals and minerals are natural catalysts, abundantly present in the majority of settings on the early Earth considered as conducive to bringing forth life. In these palaeogeochemical settings, they may have catalyzed the anabolic conversions of inorganic precursor molecules into organics and may have converted redox disequilibria between environmental reductants and oxidants into the ordering, i.e. the lowering of entropy, of first living entities. Far-fetched? Yet, this is precisely what metal ions do in life today!

An unlikely coalition of biology (biochemistry and bioenergetics) and physics (thermodynamics and condensed matter physics) is growingly questioning the plausibility of the orthodox hypotheses while putting metal ions and minerals centre-stage in their scenarios. In this volume, 29 internationally renowned experts from fields as diverse as microbiology, biochemistry, astrobiology, electrochemistry, ecology, mineralogy, geology and geochemistry shine light from their individual angles on this topic, bringing home metal ions' primordial importance to extant life, presenting minerals with tantalizing reactivities appearing as look-alikes of life's processes and sketching out plausible, metal-ion-based scenarios for life's emergence on planet Earth. Metal Ions and the Route to Life provides the empirical groundwork to interested researchers and the general public for revisiting their preconceived ideas about the origin of life and for appreciating the absolute indispensability of metal ions in life – now just as at its beginnings!

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• About the Editors
• Historical Development and Perspectives of the Series
• Preface to Volume 28
• Contents
• Contributors to Volume 28
• Handbooks and Book Series Published and (Co-)edited by the SIGELs
• Chapter 1 The Role of Metal Ions in the Emergence of Life: A Call for a Change in Paradigm
• Chapter 2 Metal Ion Catalysis in the Abiotic and Biotic Phases of the Development of Living Organisms
• Chapter 3 Metals and Life: An Introduction
• Chapter 4 Trace Metals as Redox Cofactors and Their Role in Controlling Microbial Diversity and Evolution
• Chapter 5 Electron Transfer Symphony: Unveiling the Enigmatic Role of Inorganic Iron Oxide and Sulfide Nanoparticles as Inorganic Enzymes in Early Earth Environments
• Chapter 6 Application of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for Studies of Prebiotic Metals and Complexes
• Chapter 7 Unique Semiconducting Properties of Layered Mn and Fe Oxide Minerals and Their Influence on Biogeochemical Processes
• Chapter 8 Fe-Oxyhydroxide “Fougerite/Green Rust” Minerals Transformed (or Proto-metabolized) CO2 and CH4 Prior to Life’s Emergence
• Chapter 9 Fougerite: Free Energy Converter for Life’s Conception
• Index