Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A chemical systems approach to evolution

  • REVIEW
  • Published:
RENDICONTI LINCEI Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The paper concerns the chemists way of looking at evolution. It is not based on the DNA but on the chemical elements in The Periodic Table of Mendelev. The first step is the analysis of the element content of organisms as they arose historically. This shows that in keeping with our knowledge of the environment the chemical elements in organisms changed due to the rise in oxygen in the atmosphere. Elements such as copper and zinc were greatly increased in later organism as they were released from their sulfidic ores to the sea. The nature of the changes in the chemical elements available to organisms is then discussed in terms of their functions. It is shown that much though the Darwin perception of evolution is pure chance it is strictly guided by the inevitable chemistry of the elements arising from oxidation of the environment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alon U (2006) An introduction to systems biology. Chapman and Hall/CRC, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Carafoli E, Klee C (1999) Calcium as a cell regulator. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Castling D (2005) A chemical approach to evolution. Science 308:1730–1731

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cavalier-Smith T, Brasier M, Embley TM (ed) (2006) Major steps in cell evolution. Philos Trans Roy Soc B 361:843–1083

    Google Scholar 

  • Corning PA (2001) Control information. Kybernetes 30:1272–1288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1859) On the origin of species by natural selection. J. Murray, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Dupont CL, Yang S, Palenik B, Bourne PE (2006) Proc Natl Acad (USA) 103:17822–17827

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fraústo da Silva JJR, Williams RJP (2001) The biological chemistry of the elements. Oxford University Press, Oxford and see references

    Google Scholar 

  • Harold F (2001) The way of the cell. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Janlonka E, Lamb M (1995) Epigenetic inheritance and evolution. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Leach S, Smith I, Cockell C (ed) (2006) Conditions for emergence on Earth of early life. Phil Trans Roy Soc B 361:1675–1894

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovelock J (2000) Homage to Gaia. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Margulis L (1998) Symbiotic planet. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard-Smith J, Szathmáry E (2000) The origins of life—from the birth of life to the origins of language. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan R, Martin-Almedina S, Gonzalus MI, Ferdinanez MP (2004). Biochim Biophys Acta 1742:133–140

    Google Scholar 

  • Neuberger MS, Harris RS, Di Noia JM, Petersen-Mahrt SK (2003) Immunity through DNA deamination. Trends Biochem Sci 28:305–312

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Outten CE, O’Halloran TV (2001) Femtomolar sensitivity of metalloregulatory proteins. Science 292:2488–2492

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saito MA, Sigma DM, Morel FMM (2003) The biochemical cycles of the ancient ocean. Inorg Chim Acta 356:308–320

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thauer RK, Shima S (2006) Biogeochemistry, methane and microbes. Nature 440:878–879

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wachtershauer G (1988) Origins of life and iron sulfides. Microbiol Rev 52:482–486

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber BH, Prebble JN (2006) An issue of originality and priority: the correspondence and theories of oxidative phosphorylation of Peter Mitchell and Robert J.P. Williams, 1961–1980. J Hist Biol 39:125–163

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams RJP (1961) Functions of chains of catalysts. J Theoret Biol 1:1–13

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Williams RJP, Fraústo da Silva JJR (2006) The chemistry of evolution. Elsevier, Amsterdam and see references

    Google Scholar 

  • Woese CR (1998) The universal ancestor. Natl Acad Sci USA 95:6854–6859

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This paper is in very large part a reproduction of a paper, R.J.P. Williams, A Chemical Systems Approach to Evolution, Dalton Transactions 2007, 991–1001, with permission from The Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QR, UK

    Robert Joseph Paton Williams

Authors
  1. Robert Joseph Paton Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert Joseph Paton Williams.

Additional information

Note

Since the material in this survey was published in Maynard-Smith and Szathmáry (2000) and Williams and Fraústo da Silva (2006) several authors have analysed DNA/RNA sequences in greater detail, see C. Andreini, L. Banci, I. Bertini and A. Rosato. J. Proteome Res. 2006, 5, 3173–3178, J.W. Torrance, M.W. MacArthur and J.M. Thornton, Structure, Function and Bio-information, 71, 813–830, 2008, and Y. Zhang and V.N. Gladyshev. Chem. Rev. 2009 (May) and the references in these articles. The conclusions strongly re-enforce the connection we have described in this article and previously between the environment changes and the evolution of organisms which has to be via inorganic chemistry changes, principally oxidation.

Note Concerning this Paper

This paper was given on 29th May 2009 at a meeting of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in order to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the formulation of The Periodic Table by Mendelev. The paper does not concern the chemistry of all the elements in that table but refers only to those of significance in living organisms. However, the functional significance of the elements involved in living processes is a direct reflection of their properties as placed in that table. There are the very different values of the elements in Group I, Na and K; Group II, Mg and Ca; transition metals in Groups III to XI from Sc to Cu; B-subgroup elements such as Zn in Group XII and non-metals from Groups XIII to XVII including B, C, N, O, Cl, Si, P, S, Se and I but as in Mendelev’s original table the elements of Group XVIII, the noble gases, do not appear. It is not only mineral but also biological inorganic chemistry that is systematized in the table. Evolution of the environment and organisms are closely related to the inorganic chemistry Mendelev’s Table reflects.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Williams, R.J.P. A chemical systems approach to evolution. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 21, 47–70 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-009-0053-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-009-0053-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation