Fungal Biology in the Origin and Emergence of Life

David Moore is an Honorary Reader in the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Manchester. Having recently retired after 43 years researching and teaching genetics and mycology, his ongoing research activities include computer programs simulating fungal growth and differentiation, and genomic data mining. In recent years he has created the educational websites www.fungi4schools.org (sponsored by the British Mycological Society) and www.davidmoore.org.uk. He is co-author of the 21st Century Guidebook to Fungi (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

• 1. Learning from life on Earth in the present day; 2. Essentials of fungal cell biology; 3. First, make a habitat; 4. The building blocks of life; 5. An extraterrestrial origin of life?; 6. Endogenous synthesis of prebiotic organic compounds on the young Earth; 7. Cooking the recipe for life; 8. 'It's life, Jim…'; 9. Coming alive: what happened and where?; 10. My name is LUCA; 11. Towards eukaryotes; 12. Rise of the fungi; 13. Emergence of diversity; References; Index.

'In a wonderful introduction to this wide and exciting subject, and ensuring accessibility to non-specialist readers, key features of fungal biology are introduced, as is current thinking on the beginnings of the solar system, the formation of the Earth and its Moon, and the possible origins of the building blocks of life, including panspermia, the ET origin of life on earth. Central in this thought provoking book is a consideration of the definition of what is life, from the philosophical to the rigidly scientific. This definition is key to deciding on what was LUCA, the last universal common ancestor. Current views on this are well reviewed, critically analysed and dissected. A fascinating read, a myco-centric version of the origin of the eukaryotes, firmly dismissing the animal biased theories.' J. L. Faull, Birkbeck, University of London