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- Title
A possible primordial peptide cycle.
- Authors
Huber, Claudia; Eisenreich, Wolfgang; Hecht, Stefan; Wächtershäuser, Gunter
- Abstract
alpha-Amino acids can undergo peptide formation by activation with carbon monoxide (CO) under hot aqueous conditions in the presence of freshly coprecipitated colloidal (Fe,Ni)S. We now show that CO-driven peptide formation proceeds concomitantly with CO-driven, N-terminal peptide degradation by racemizing N-terminal hydantoin and urea derivatives to alpha-amino acids. This establishes a peptide cycle with closely related anabolic and catabolic segments. The hydantoin derivative is a purin-related heterocycle. The (Fe,Ni)S-dependent urea hydrolysis could have been the evolutionary precursor of the nickelenzyme urease. The results support the theory of a chemoautotrophic origin of life with a CO-driven, (Fe,Ni)S-dependent primordial metabolism.
- Publication
Science (New York, N.Y.), 2003, Vol 301, Issue 5635, p938
- ISSN
1095-9203
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1126/science.1086501