Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Invitrogen

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 15 August 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5635, pp. 938 - 940
DOI: 10.1126/science.1086501
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

A Possible Primordial Peptide Cycle

Claudia Huber,1 Wolfgang Eisenreich,1 Stefan Hecht,1 Günter Wächtershäuser2*

{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.

1 Department for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technische Universität München, Lichtenbergstraße 4, D-85747 Garching, Germany.
2 Department for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technische Universität München, Tal 29, D-80331 München, Germany.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: info{at}patent.de

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Geochemical Connections to Primitive Metabolism.
G. D. Cody (2005)
Elements 1, 139-143
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Recycling Frank: Spontaneous emergence of homochirality in noncatalytic systems.
R. Plasson, H. Bersini, and A. Commeyras (2004)
PNAS 101, 16733-16738
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Carbonyl Sulfide-Mediated Prebiotic Formation of Peptides.
L. Leman, L. Orgel, and M. R. Ghadiri (2004)
Science 306, 283-286
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)