Are prions a relic of an early stage of peptide evolution?
The rather unique properties of prions and their presence in very different kinds of living species suggest that this type of molecule was created at a very early stage of evolution and may even represent a relic from a time where peptide evolution was ongoing and RNA/DNA did not yet exist. A comparison of the most frequently occurring amino acid sequences in known prions with the sequences preferentially formed in the salt-induced peptide formation reaction, the most simple mechanism enabling the formation of peptides under primitive earth conditions, shows a remarkable coincidence that strongly supports this hypothesis.
Rode
B M
BM
Theoretical Chemistry Division, Institute for General, Inorganic, and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Innsbruck, Austria. Bernd.M.Rode@uibk.ac.at
Flader
W
W
Sotriffer
C
C
Righi
A
A
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008954:Models, Biological; D000069497:Origin of Life; D011328:Prions / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*
D011328:Prions