How did life originate and evolve? Since the 1930s, results from investigations on the molecular aspects of biological energy conversion have provided increasingly detailed knowledge about mechanisms involved in the biological transformation, coupling, conversion, and conservation of energy.

In more recent years, sequence data on protein, RNA, and DNA, and data on three-dimensional structures have led to a new understanding of various molecular interrelations between bacterial, plant, and animal systems.

Origin and Evolution of Biological Energy Conversion surveys current knowledge about how bioenergetic reactions and systems may have originated and evolved. Written by invited specialists, this volume deals with basic questions, examines recent results, and discusses the evolution of the most essential components of photosynthetic and respiratory energy conversion.

This book will be of interest to biologists, chemists, physicists, geologists, and science historians, as well as others who are interested in the evolution of life on earth.