THE CO-EVOLUTION OF MINERALS AND LIFE (Invited Presentation)

A specific subset of transition metals is incorporated into the active sites of extant enzymes that transfer electrons (the oxidoreductases). The most ancient of these appears to have been derived from iron sulfur clusters, however Cu, Mo and Mn also are widely used. In the contemporary ocean some of these metals are extremely scarce (such as iron), but with few exceptions, they are not substituted in biological structures. In this talk, I will examine the geologic and biologic history of the evolution of the oxidoreductases and the feedbacks between the structures of the proteins and the availabilty of the metal ions in aqueous phase.