Review
Early evolution without a tree of life
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Correspondence: William F Martin w.martin@uni-duesseldorf.de
Institut of Botany III, University of Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Biology Direct 2011, 6:36 doi:10.1186/1745-6150-6-36
Published: 30 June 2011Abstract
Life is a chemical reaction. Three major transitions in early evolution are considered without recourse to a tree of life. The origin of prokaryotes required a steady supply of energy and electrons, probably in the form of molecular hydrogen stemming from serpentinization. Microbial genome evolution is not a treelike process because of lateral gene transfer and the endosymbiotic origins of organelles. The lack of true intermediates in the prokaryote-to-eukaryote transition has a bioenergetic cause.
This article was reviewed by Dan Graur, W. Ford Doolittle, Eugene V. Koonin and Christophe Malaterre.