International Conference
THE PROBLEM OF THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
Youth Scientific School
MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BASIS
OF THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF LIFE
Moscow – September 22-26, 2014
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
«THE PROBLEM OF THE ORIGIN OF LIFE» AND
YOUTH SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL
«MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BASIS OF THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF LIFE»
On September 22-26, 2014, the Bach Institute of Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences organized in Moscow the
International Conference “The Problem of the Origin of Life” and the Youth Scientific School “Molecular and Cellular Basis of the Early Evolution of Life”
commemorating the 120th anniversary of Alexander Oparin and the 90th anniversary of the publication of his book "The Origin of Life". In this book A.Oparin first presented a scientific concept
of how living systems originated on Earth and to this day the book serves as the basis of all modern studies in this area.
More than 250 participants from Russia, USA, Germany, Italy, Japan, Czech Republic, Mexico, France, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan were registered as participants of the meeting. In addition,
all the sessions were on-line broadcasted on the official web-site of the event, and more than 100 people watched the lectures remotely, in real-time mode. More then 20 young scientists,
the participants in the Youth Scientific School have presented the poster communications. The best posters (two from Russia, one from Japan, two from Czech Republic) were selected by Organizing committee
for the oral presentation at the Conference.
The scientific program of the Conference and School featured lectures by leading Russian and foreign scientists, who summarized current understanding of the origin and early evolution of life on our planet.
The program was focused onto biochemical aspects of the problem and covered the following area:
- Origin and evolution of informational biopolymers. Main attention was paid to the experimental modeling of ‘RNA world’ (A.S. Spirin, E. Gallori, M.-C. Maurel, E. Di Mauro, A.B. Chetverin). In addition, some lecturers discussed the principles of the biopolymers evolution in prebiotic world. It also touched the role of prion proteins as genetic information carriers in modern organisms (S.D. Varfolomeev, M.D. Ter-Avanesyan).
- Evolutionary roots of cellular metabolism (A. Lazcano, M.S. Kritsky, A.Y. Mulkidjanian, D. Deamer, M.A. Fedonkin). The lectures mainly dealt with a modelling of a spontaneous emergence in the conditions of early Earth of the micro- and nanoscale systems capable to transform energy and information. The lectures have also outlined the possible geological niches where primitive organisms could emerge and analyzed the role of natural selection in the early history of life.
- Reconstruction of the earliest ecosystems: biochemical and paleontological approaches (K. Stetter, E.A. Bonch-Osmolovskaya, A. Yamagishi). The lecturers focused on the comparison of the results of biochemical investigation of modern extremophile microorganisms with the data of pre-Cambrian paleontology, as well as on the mechanisms basing the resistance of the ancient inhabitants of the Earth to environmental extremes (N.V. Karapetyan). The prospects of an investigation of the inhabitants of the extrasolar planets were discussed in the lecture of J.F. Kasting.
- Biochemical research of the life's earliest history. The lectures presented in the School sessions mostly dealt with basic aspects of biochemical evolution, as well as with the evolution of the specific biomolecules and processes (A.V. Markov, A.Y. Mulkidjanian, K.B. Shumaev, V.V. Matveev, A.F. Topunov, M.A. Nikitin).
Documentary film about A.Oparin
Materials of the Youth Scientific School «Molecular and cellular basis of the early evolution of life»
| Speaker | Topic | Presentation | Video |
| V.O. Popov | Opening of the School |  |
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| M.S. Kritsky | About Alexander Ivanovich Oparin | |
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| A.V. Markov | Origin of life on Earth: Current models |  |
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| M.A. Nikitin | Photosynthesis: from first biomolecules to C4-plants | |
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| A.F. Topunov | Hemoglobin: Billions years of evolution | |
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| K.B. Shumaev | Alternative biochemistry and evolution of hypothetical extraterrestrial ecosystems | ||
| A.Y. Mulkidjanian | Reconstruction of the first cells and their habitats | |
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| V.V. Matveev | Four fundamental physical properties of the living cell and the problem of life origin | |
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Materials of the International Conference «The problem of the origin of life»
| Speaker | Topic | Presentation | Video |
| V.O. Popov | Introductory words | |
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| J.W. Schopf | Greetings from ISSOL | |
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| A.S. Spirin | Introductory words | ||
| E. Di Mauro | About spontaneous molecular generation | |
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| J.E. Sponer | The route from formamide to simple ribozymes – structures and mechanisms from advanced computational studies | |
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| E. Gallori | Origin of genetic material: looking for the ancestral cradle | |
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| A.B. Chetverin | Template circularization might prevent the formation of double strands during RNA replication | |
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| M.-C. Maurel | From ancient to modern worlds: RNA back and forth | |
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| M.D. Ter-Avanesyan | Prions as proteinaceous genetic material | |
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| S.D. Varfolomeev | Prebiological synthesis and evolution of macromolecules | |
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| A. Lazcano | Oparin’s heterotrophic theory of the origin of life: a contemporary reassessment | |
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| M.S. Kritsky | Abiogenic alternative to the chlorophyll-based convertor of solar energy | |
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| M.A. Fedonkin | Role of hydrogen and metals in the formation and evolution of metabolic systems | |
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| A.B. Chetverin | Molecular colonies: A plausible form of compartmentalization in the RNA world | |
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| D. Deamer | Hydrothermal conditions drive polymerization: Oparin's prescient idea | |
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| J.W.Schopf | Beginnings of life: Darwin to Oparin to us | |
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| A.Y. Mulkidjanian | Anoxic geothermal fields and the origin of first organisms | |
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| K. Stetter | Hyperthermophiles in the History of Life | |
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| E.A. Bonch-Osmolovskaya | Microbial communities of thermal environments - possible analogues of early Earth ecosystems? | |
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| A. Yamagishi | Insight from genetic information: Experimental evidence of the thermophilicity of ancestral life | |
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| N.V. Karapetyan | How cyanobacteria managed to survive under intense solar radiation billions years ago: Photoprotection mechanisms | |
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| J.F. Kasting | How the search for Earth-like planets around other stars can inform studies of the origin of life | |
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| J.W. Schopf | Known «knowns» - and known «unknowns» - about Earth's early environment and the origin of life | |
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Best poster reports
| Speaker | Topic | Presentation | Video |
| A. Alexandrov (Russia) | Possible origins of yeast prion domains from polyQ/N tracts | |
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| Jan Fedorko (Czech Republic) | Study of evolutionary mechanisms involved in lipid metabolisms of Chlamydomonasreinhardtii | |
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| H. Takahashi (Japan) | Bioinformatic identification method of evolutional ranges for potential functional molecules on genomes | ||
| Е. Yagolnik (Russia) | The experimental models of first life objects. Biological active substances actions to these models | |
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Photos
