title: Prebiotic synthesis of histidyl-histidine.
abstract: Histidyl-histidine (His-His) has been synthesized in a yield of up to 14.4% under plausible prebiotic conditions using histidine (His), cyanamide, and 4-amino-5-imidazole carboxamide.  A trace amount of His trimer was also detected.  Because the imidazole group of His is involved in a number of important enzymatic reactions, and His-His has been shown to catalyze the prebiotic synthesis of glycyl-glycine, we expect this work will stimulate further studies on the catalytic activities of simple His-containing peptides in prebiotic reactions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences, University of Houston, Texas 77204, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mills
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oro
mesh_terms: D000620:Aminoimidazole Carboxamide / Q000737:chemistry; D002384:Catalysis; D003484:Cyanamide / Q000737:chemistry; D004151:Dipeptides / Q000032:analysis / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D019418:Evolution, Chemical; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006033:Glycylglycine / Q000737:chemistry; D006639:Histidine / Q000737:chemistry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004151:Dipeptides; D006033:Glycylglycine; C028983:histidylhistidine; D000620:Aminoimidazole Carboxamide; D003484:Cyanamide; D006639:Histidine