Highlights•Comparative evolutionary genomics has revealed that novel protein coding
genes can emerge randomly from non-coding DNA.•The existence of de novo proteins …

The origins of life likely required the cooperation among a set of molecular species
interacting in a network. If so, then the earliest modes of evolutionary change would have …

Over the past thirty years, a new systemic conception of life has emerged at the forefront of
science. New emphasis has been given to complexity, networks, and patterns of …

Addressing the emergence of life from a systems biology perspective, this new edition has
undergone extensive revision, reflecting changes in scientific understanding and evolution …

How did specific useful protein sequences arise from simpler molecules at the origin of life?
This seemingly needle-in-a-haystack problem has remarkably close resemblance to the old …

With DNA genomes reaching 2.5 Mb packed in particles of bacterium-like shape and
dimension, the first two Acanthamoeba-infecting pandoraviruses remained up to now the …

Highlights•Advances in directed protein evolution during previous biennium are
reviewed.•Technology innovations enable evolution of previously inaccessible …

The protein sequences found in nature represent a tiny fraction of the potential sequences
that could be constructed from the 20-amino-acid alphabet. To help define the properties …

The earliest proteins had to rely on amino acids available on early Earth before the
biosynthetic pathways for more complex amino acids evolved. In extant proteins, a …

Catalysis is an essential feature of living systems biochemistry, and probably, it played a key
role in primordial times, helping to produce more complex molecules from simple ones …