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Evolution of Natural Products

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Natural Products of Woody Plants

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Wood Science ((SSWOO))

Abstract

The evolution of natural products on earth has fascinated scientists and laymen alike for many years. A vast literature has been accumulated concerning the hypothetical interface of the prebiotic (chemical) and the organismic (biochemical) phases (50, 60). Nevertheless the entire concept, including the validity of its experimental basis, has more recently been questioned. Indeed the concept introduces a problem of the hen-and-egg type. Which ones came first — the complex molecules with genetic and enzymatic potential or the molecules generated by such catalytic macromolecules? Cairns-Smith (10) gave the sole reasonable answer: genes and enzymes. According to this author the most central molecules of life are the same in all organisms on earth today. Hence all life has descended from a common ancestor in which the central biochemical system was already fixed. That it should have remained fixed for so long is surely because of the critical interdependence of all components of the central highly complex machinery. Hence the ancestor must be situated at a quite high position of the evolutionary tree, preceded by simpler forms in which chemical reactions were catalyzed initially by geochemical genetic material such as clay crystals and metal ions. In the resulting progressively more sophisticated system “genetic takeover” must have occurred, the inorganic material having been gradually replaced by an organic one, preferentially endowed with information-carrying capacity and catalytic activity. So far only one macromolecule is known to possess such a double capacity: RNA (12). However, direct synthesis of RNA is an improbable event. The enzyme catalyzing its in vitro formation is far too complex to have had a clay template analogue on primitive earth (10).

This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Dr. Rolf Dahlgren (1932–1987), Botanical Museum, University of Copenhagen, who courageously broke away from tradition, introducing chemical data not only for refinement but as decisive criteria in the construction of his system of angiosperm classification.

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  1. Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, USDA, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, WI, 53705-2398, USA

    John W. Rowe

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Gottlieb, O.R. (1989). Evolution of Natural Products. In: Rowe, J.W. (eds) Natural Products of Woody Plants. Springer Series in Wood Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74075-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74075-6_4

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