title: Biased versus unbiased randomness in homo-polymers and copolymers of amino acids in the prebiotic world.
abstract: The polymerization of amino acids under anhydrous prebiotic conditions was first studied several decades ago. Here we use a stochastic model stressing the relevant role of the polarity of amino acids in the formation of oligopeptides in a prebiotic milieu. Our goal is to outline the predominance of co-polypeptides over homo-polypeptides, resulting not only from the randomness, but also from polarity properties of amino acids. Our results conclude that there was a higher probability of the formation of co-polypeptides than of homo-polymers. Besides, we may hypothesize that the former would have a more ample spectrum of possible chemical functions than homo-polypeptides.
authors.affiliation: Direccion General de Divulgacion de la Ciencia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico. gmosque@universum.unam.mx
authors.forename: Fernando G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Mosqueira
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Negron
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Polanco
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008239:Lysine / Q000737:chemistry; D008390:Markov Chains; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D000069497:Origin of Life; D058105:Polymerization; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D009842:Oligopeptides; D011108:Polymers; D008239:Lysine