title: Why were polysaccharides necessary?
abstract: The main idea of this paper is that the primordial soup may be modelled by food systems whose structure-property relationship is based on non-specific interactions between denatured biopolymers. According to the proposed hypothesis, polysaccharides were the first biopolymers that decreased concentration of salts in the primordial soup, 'compatibilised' and drove the joint evolution of proto-biopolymers. Synthesis of macromolecules within the polysaccharide-rich medium could have resulted in phase separation of the primordial soup and concentration of the polypeptides and nucleic acids in the dispersed phase particles. The concentration of proto-biopolymer mixtures favoured their cross-linking in hybrid supermacromolecules of conjugates. The cross-linking of proto-biopolymers could occur by hydrophobic, electrostatic interactions, H-bonds due to freezing aqueous mixed biopolymer dispersions and/or by covalent bonds due to the Maillard reaction. Cross-linking could have increased the local concentration of chemically different proto-biopolymers, fixed their relative positions and made their interactions reproducible. Attractive-repulsive interactions between cross-linked proto-biopolymer chains could develop pairing of the monomer units, improved chemical stability (against hydrolysis) and led to their mutual catalytic activity and coding. Conjugates could probably evolve to the first self-reproduced entities and then to specialized cellular organelles. Phase separation of the primordial soup with concentration of conjugates in the dispersed particles has probably resulted in proto-cells.
authors.affiliation: Nestlé Research Centre, P.O. Box 44, Vers-chez-les-Blanc, CH-1000, Lausanne 26, Switzerland. tolstoguzov.v@bluewin.ch
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tolstoguzov
mesh_terms: D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D002384:Catalysis; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents / Q000737:chemistry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D018716:Molecular Mimicry; D001678:Organelle Biogenesis; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D011134:Polysaccharides