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Science 5 February 1999:
Vol. 283. no. 5403, pp. 831 - 833
DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5403.831
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Reports

Elongation of Oligopeptides in a Simulated Submarine Hydrothermal System

Ei-ichi Imai, 1 Hajime Honda, 1 Kuniyuki Hatori, 1 André Brack, 2 Koichiro Matsuno 1*

Oligomerization of a peptide was attempted in a flow reactor that simulated a submarine hydrothermal system. When fluid containing glycine repeatedly circulated through the hot and cold regions in the reactor, oligopeptides were made from glycine. When divalent ions (such as copper ions) were added under acidic conditions, oligoglycine was elongated up to hexaglycine. This observation suggests that prebiotic monomers could have oligomerized in the vicinity of submarine hydrothermal vents on primitive Earth.

1 Department of BioEngineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka 940-2188, Japan.
2 Centre de Biophysique Moleculaire, CNRS, 45071 Orléans Cedex 2, France.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kmatsuno{at}vos.nagaokaut.ac.jp

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