Proteinoids

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Proteinoids are protein-like polymers made from amino acids which, in contrast to proteins, are not produced by protein biosynthesis but by condensation reactions outside of living beings . Sidney W. Fox considered proteinoids to be a possible precursor of living beings in terms of abiogenesis .

properties

In 1953, the Miller-Urey experiment produced amino acids in a hypothetical primordial soup . Based on this, proteinoids are formed at temperatures around 140 ° C, in the presence of catalysts already from 70 ° C. Possible catalysts are e.g. B. phosphate or amidine carbodiimide are possible. From this, due to hydrophobic effects, spherical protein complexes ( microspheres ) can form, which have two properties of living beings, such as a protein-based biomembrane and a splitting into daughter spheres as the equivalent of cell division . An alternative theory of the origin of life in the course of chemical evolution is the RNA world hypothesis .

literature

  • J. Ricard: Systems biology and the origins of life? Part I. Are biochemical networks possible ancestors of living systems? Reproduction, identity and sensitivity to signals of biochemical networks. In: CR Biol. (2010), Volume 333, Issue 11-12, pp. 761-768. doi : 10.1016 / j.crvi.2010.10.003 . PMID 21146131 .
  • J. Ricard: Systems biology and the origins of life? Part II. Are biochemical networks possible ancestors of living systems? networks of catalysed chemical reactions: non-equilibrium, self-organization and evolution. In: CR Biol. (2010), Volume 333, Issue 11-12, pp. 769-778. doi : 10.1016 / j.crvi.2010.10.004 . PMID 21146132 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ T. Hayakawa, CR Windsor, SW Fox : Copolymerization of the Leuchs anhydrides of the eighteen amino acids common to protein. In: Arch Biochem Biophys. (1967), Vol. 118 (2), pp. 265-72. PMID 6033704 .
  2. ^ Sidney W. Fox, Klaus Dose: Molecular Evolution and the Origin of Life . Dekker, 1977, ISBN 9780824766191 .
  3. ^ Sidney W. Fox: Synthesis of life in the lab? Defining a protoliving system. The Quarterly review of biology, 66, 1991, pp. 181-185, PMID 1891592 , ( Commentary ).
  4. ↑ Tadayoshi Nakashima: Metabolism of proteinoid microspheres. In: Topics in Current Chemistry Volume 139: Organic Geo- and Cosmochemistry . ISBN 978-3-540-17010-5 . Pp. 57-81.