Power, Sex, Suicide · Mitochondria and the meaning of life by Lane, Nick; -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover page Halftitle page Praise for Power, Sex, Suicide Title page Copyright page Dedication page Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Preface Introduction. Mitochondria: Clandestine Rulers of the World PART 1 Hopeful Monster: The Origin of the Eukaryotic Cell

1. The Deepest Evolutionary Chasm

Differences between bacteria and eukaryotes A skeleton and many closets The road less travelled—from bacteria to eukaryotes

2. Quest for a Progenitor

‘Discovery’ of the archaea—a missing link? The archezoa—eukaryotes without mitochondria The eukaryote’s progress Reversal of a paradigm

3. The Hydrogen Hypothesis

From addict to world-beater Chance and necessity

PART 2 The Vital Force: Proton Power and the Origin of Life

4. The Meaning of Respiration

Colours in the cell The respiratory chain ATP: the universal energy currency The elusive squiggle

5. Proton Power

The explanatory power of proton power The deeper meaning of respiration

6. The Origin of Life

The first cell Full metal jacket Life itself

PART 3 Insider Deal: The Foundations of Complexity

7. Why Bacteria are Simple

Gene loss as an evolutionary trajectory Balancing gene loss and gain in bacteria The stumbling block of geometry How to lose the cell wall without dying Why insider dealing pays

8. Why Mitochondria Make Complexity Possible

The origin of the nucleus Why did mitochondria retain any genes at all? The nucleus is not enough The problem of poise Why mitochondria need genes Barriers to complexity in bacteria

PART 4 Power Laws: Size and the Ramp of Ascending Complexity

9. The Power Laws of Biology

The fractal tree of life Supply and demand—or demand and supply? Questioning the universal constant The limits of network limitation Just ask for more Part and parcel of metabolism

10. The Warm-Blooded Revolution

Sizing up to complexity Proton leak First steps up the ramp

PART 5 Murder or Suicide: The Troubled Birth of the Individual

11. Conflict in the Body

Chronicle of a death foretold The executioners Mitochondria, angels of death Battle of life and death Parasite wars?

12. Foundations of the Individual

Sex and the origin of death Free-radical signal First steps to the individual

PART 6 Battle of the Sexes: Human Pre History and the Nature of Gender

13. The Asymmetry of Sex

Uniparental inheritance Selfish competition

14. What Human Pre History Says About the Sexes

Down the maternal line Mitochondrial recombination

15. Why There Are Two Sexes

The mitochondrial bottleneck

PART 7 Clock of Life: Why Mitochondria Kill us in the End

16. The Mitochondrial Theory of Ageing

Mitochondrial mutations Mitochondrial diseases The paradox of mitochondrial mutations in ageing

17. Demise of the Self-Correcting Machine

The retrograde response Disease and death

18. A Cure for Old Age? Epilogue

Glossary Further Reading Index