Self-instructed condensation of amino acids into polymers.
In contemporary cells biological information is largely stored in nucleic acids. Therefore, a prerequisite in many theories on the origin of cellular life is the pre-existence of self-replicating polynucleotides that had to be formed by abiotic processes on the prebiotic Earth. It is usually assumed that the spontaneous synthesis of a self-replicating polynucleotide could take place readily. However, serious stereochemical obstacles exist which make Such a synthesis extremely improbable. Amino acids on the other hand, which are abundantly formed in prebiotic simulation experiments, are relatively easily polymerized to macromolecules (protoproteins) that share with modern proteins many properties: e.g., definable non-random structure, selected amino acid sequences, enzyme-like activities and self-assembly into supramolecular structures. Prebiotic polyamino acids are therefore regarded by some scientists, including the present author, as the first informational macromolecules. The origin of this information is the chemical reactivity of the various prebiotic amino acids and their chemical response to their environment. The first informational polynucleotides were likely formed by a polynucleotide polymerase activity of prebiotic protoproteins. A contemporary model for this process is seen, e.g., in the activity of template-free Q beta-replicase.
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Institute for Biochemistry, University, Mainz, FRG.
D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D019418:Evolution, Chemical; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000138:chemical synthesis; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis; D011108:Polymers / Q000138:chemical synthesis*
D000596:Amino Acids; D009696:Nucleic Acids; D010455:Peptides; D011108:Polymers