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INORGANIC

POLYPHOSPHATES IN

CHEMICAL AND

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

The achievements of contemporary science have enabled biochemical investigations to be
extended beyond the biochemistry of contemporary organisms, and it is now possible to
pose and to answer many questions concerning evolutionary and comparative biochemistry.
The present stage of development of biochemistry and molecular biology is characterized
by a steadily increasing interest in a great variety of evolutionary problems. Modern ge-
nomics and proteomics offer many new possibilities for understanding the evolution of
protein families, biochemical pathways and other functions of living cells. A wealth of ex-
perimental material has been provided, from which far-reaching conclusions may be drawn
concerning the origin and development of life on Earth. These investigations have been
mainly concerned with those aspects of chemical evolution which must have preceded the
appearance of life on Earth (Miller, 1953, 1955; 1986; Belozersky, 1959a–c; Griffith et al.,
1973; Beck and Orgel, 1965; Lohmann and Orgel, 1968; Ponnamperuma et al., 1963; Rabi-
nowitz et al., 1968; Schwartz and Ponnamperuma, 1968; Oro et al., 1990). It worth noting
that the experimental data so far obtained are a great triumph for the theory of the origin of
life on Earth, as previously put forward by A. I. Oparin (Oparin, 1924, 1938, 1957, 1965,
1976).
However, despite the outstanding achievements of evolutionary biochemistry, many
problems still await solution. Among these unsolved and relatively little-investigated prob-
lems of evolutionary biochemistry, there are the role of phosphorus compounds in chemical
evolution, which preceded the appearance of life on Earth, and the evolution of phosphorus
metabolism from primitive organisms to contemporary living creatures.

The Biochemistry of Inorganic Polyphosphates I. S. Kulaev, V. M. Vagabov and T. V. Kulakovskaya
C 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd ISBN: 0-470-85810-9

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