Specificity of protein-nucleic acid interaction and the biochemical evolution.
The water soluble carbodiimide mediated condensation of dipeptides of the general form Gly-X was carried out in the presence of mono- and poly-nucleotides. The observed yield of the tetrapeptide was found to be higher for peptide-nucleotide system of higher interaction specificity following mainly the anticodon-amino acid relationship (Basu, H.S. & Podder, S.K., 1981, Ind. J. Biochem. Biophys., 19, 251-253). The yield of the condensation product of L-peptide was more because of its higher interaction specificity. The extent of the racemization during the condensation of Gly-L-Phe, Gly-L-Tyr and Gly-D-Phe was found to be dependent on the specificity of the interaction--the higher the specificity, the lesser the racemization. The product formed was shown to have a catalytic effect on the condensation reaction. These data thus provide a mechanism showing how the specific interaction between amino acids/dipeptides and nucleic acids could lead to the formation of the 'primitive' translation machinery.
D005075:Biological Evolution; D004151:Dipeptides; D005815:Genetic Code; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000235:genetics*; D009698:Nucleoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis; D011119:Polynucleotides; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
D004151:Dipeptides; D009696:Nucleic Acids; D009698:Nucleoproteins; D010455:Peptides; D011119:Polynucleotides; D011506:Proteins