BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//talks.cam.ac.uk//v3//EN
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Europe/London
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:BST
DTSTART:19700329T010000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:GMT
DTSTART:19701025T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
CATEGORIES:Cambridge University Biological Society
SUMMARY:Energetic constraints on the evolution of life - D
 r Nick Lane (Department of Genetics\, Evolution an
 d Environment\, University College London)
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20140303T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20140303T203000
UID:TALK49739AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/49739
DESCRIPTION:_This talk is free for members of BioSoc or £2 for
  non-members. You can also sign up for life member
 ship (£15) at this talk._\n\nAll morphologically c
 omplex life on Earth is eukaryotic\, and all eukar
 yotes share a common ancestor that was already a c
 omplex cell. Despite their biochemical virtuosity\
 , prokaryotes show no tendency to evolve eukaryoti
 c traits or large genomes. I will argue that proka
 ryotes are constrained by their membrane bioenerge
 tics\, for fundamental reasons that stem from the 
 very origin of life. Eukaryotes arose in a rare en
 dosymbiosis between two prokaryotes\, which broke 
 the energetic constraints on prokaryotes and gave 
 rise to mitochondria. Loss of almost all mitochond
 rial genes produced an extreme genomic asymmetry i
 n eukaryotes\, in which tiny mitochondrial genomes
  support\, energetically\, a massive nuclear genom
 e\, giving eukaryotes 3-4 orders of magnitude more
  energy per gene than prokaryotes. The requirement
  for endosymbiosis radically altered selection on 
 eukaryotes\, potentially explaining the evolution 
 of unique traits\, including two sexes\, speciatio
 n and ageing.
LOCATION:Large Lecture Theatre\, Department of Plant Scienc
 es\, Downing Site
CONTACT:Ivan Lam
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR