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<meta name="citation_author" content="Eugene V Koonin">
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class="wsprkl btn" title="Jump to next match">▶</a></nav></nav></div><div id="jr-epub-interstitial" class="hidden"></div><div id="jr-content"><article data-type="main"><div class="main-content lit-style" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/CreativeWork"><div class="meta-content fm-sec"><div class="fm-sec"><h1 id="_NBK20251_"><span class="title" itemprop="name">Introduction: Personal Interludes</span></h1><p class="fm-aai"><a href="#_NBK20251_pubdet_">Publication Details</a></p></div></div><div class="body-content whole_rhythm" itemprop="text"><p>In the early spring of 1980, one of the authors of this book (E.V.K.) was an excited
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listener to a seminar presented in Moscow State University, the authors’ alma
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mater, by a well-known virologist, a scientist of rare creativity, and later a good friend,
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Anatoly Altstein. The subject of the seminar was a model of the origin of the genetic
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coding and translation he had developed [<a href="/books/n/sef/A727/?report=reader#A751">23</a>]. The
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model was a beauty, but it was hard to imagine how one would go about verifying it (just in
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case the reader is curious, an attempt to test this idea using actual molecular models of
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nucleotides and amino acids has been subsequently published [<a href="/books/n/sef/A727/?report=reader#A752">24</a>]). Toward the end of the seminar, upon answering the question about
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validation of the model for the umpteenth time, Anatoly dropped, rather casually, something
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to the effect of “Not to worry, we will soon have many gene sequences to compare
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and will be able to reconstruct the earliest stages of evolution”. This was the
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first occasion for the author, at the time a struggling graduate student in virology with a
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persistent but futile interest in evolution, to grasp the idea of comparative genomics.
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Even so, he remained skeptical as to the potential of sequence comparison to solve the
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mystery of the Origin of Life. Little did he know that his entire career in science would
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be dedicated to this very objective: understanding evolution through comparisons of genes,
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genomes, and proteins. Now, 22 years after that memorable seminar, we are still far from
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understanding the origin of coding. Perhaps this is the “singularity”
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of biological evolution that cannot be reached through reconstruction based on the
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comparative method. However, comparative genomics has already revealed many fascinating
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aspects of all subsequent stages of evolution and is bringing us breathtakingly close to
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the Beginning.</p><p>At about the same time and in the same building, the other author (MYG), then a graduate
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student in membrane biochemistry, learned about the similarity of membrane organization and
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energy-transducing processes in bacteria, mitochondria, and chloroplasts. He became
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interested in the apparent paradox: if survival of any living cells depends on the
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integrity of its cytoplasmic membrane that maintains the electric charge and transmembrane
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gradients of Na and K ions, such a system could not have evolved in steps—a
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membrane that is freely permeable (or entirely impermeable) is not functional. The interest
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in the origin and evolution of membrane energy-coupling mechanisms has finally brought this
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author to—where else?—comparative genomics of microorganisms. Although
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the principal questions in membrane evolution still remain unresolved, we are gradually
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approaching a better understanding of the Beginning of Life in that respect, too.</p><div id="bk_toc_contnr"></div></div></div><div class="fm-sec"><h2 id="_NBK20251_pubdet_">Publication Details</h2><h3>Copyright</h3><div><div class="half_rhythm"><a href="/books/about/copyright/">Copyright</a> © 2003, Kluwer Academic.</div></div><h3>Publisher</h3><p><a href="http://www.springer.com/" ref="pagearea=page-banner&targetsite=external&targetcat=link&targettype=publisher">Kluwer Academic</a>, Boston</p><h3>NLM Citation</h3><p>Koonin EV, Galperin MY. Sequence - Evolution - Function: Computational Approaches in Comparative Genomics. Boston: Kluwer Academic; 2003. Introduction: Personal Interludes.<span class="bk_cite_avail"></span></p></div><div class="small-screen-prev"><a href="/books/n/sef/A1/?report=reader"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 100 100" preserveAspectRatio="none"><path d="M75,30 c-80,60 -80,0 0,60 c-30,-60 -30,0 0,-60"></path><text x="20" y="28" textLength="60" style="font-size:25px">Prev</text></svg></a></div><div class="small-screen-next"><a href="/books/n/sef/A4/?report=reader"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 100 100" preserveAspectRatio="none"><path d="M25,30c80,60 80,0 0,60 c30,-60 30,0 0,-60"></path><text x="20" y="28" textLength="60" style="font-size:25px">Next</text></svg></a></div></article></div><div id="jr-scripts"><script src="/corehtml/pmc/jatsreader/ptpmc_3.22/js/libs.min.js"> </script><script src="/corehtml/pmc/jatsreader/ptpmc_3.22/js/jr.min.js"> </script></div></div>
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