Catalysis before Enzymes: Thiol-Rich Peptides as Molecular Diversity Providers on the Early Earth

The multiplicity of simple molecules available on the primitive Earth probably made possible the development of extremely diverse prebiotic chemistry. The importance of thiols is widely recognized in the community studying the origin of life. De Duve's “thioester world” has been considered a major contribution in this regard, where thioester bonds have high energies and thus can contribute to several chemical reactions. Herein, we propose specific models of thiols that exhibit unique activities toward several chemical reactions. Thanks to aminothiol and aminonitrile behaviors, we were able to obtain thiol-rich peptides with interesting catalytic activities leading to the formation of structurally diverse molecules. In a broader context, such chemistry could be introduced into systems chemistry scenarios in which it would be associated with the chemistry of nucleic acids or their precursors, as well as that of fatty acids.

Références

Titre
Catalysis before Enzymes: Thiol-Rich Peptides as Molecular Diversity Providers on the Early Earth
Type de publication
Article de revue
Année de publication
2023
Revue
Diversity
Volume
15
Ticket
2
Pagination
256
ISSN
1424-2818
Soumis le 21 février 2023