"The Impact of Sequencing Genomes on the Understanding of the Origin of Life on Earth"

Abstract

This abstract describes the scientific basis of the origin of life on Earth. Life has never been on Earth like as it is today. It has evolved over millions of years from a single cell microbe to a trillion-cell human being. The history of the evolution of life on Earth is trapped as fossils in the geological formation of rocks trapped in the Earth. The lowest level of the three and a half billion-year-old rocks contains the fossil of the simplest life forms. As we moved up to study geological formation of the younger and younger layers of rocks, we observe accumulation of mutations over millions of years, resulting in the increase complexity of fossil records. We have recently learned a technique to extract DNA from the fossils. Using modern technique developed during genome sequencing, our analysis of the DNA from the fossil revealed the structures of ancient life forms. The sequencing of human genome has provided us with a genetic toolkit which contains molecular scissors (enzymes such as restriction enzyme, like EcoR1, DNA polymerase, DNA ligase etc.), to cut, paste, copy, and sequence a gene. This abstract also describes how we can move a gene from one species to another to benefit the bourgeoning population of the world by providing new food, new fuel, and new medicine to treat every disease known to mankind.