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arXiv 0909.2832q-bio.BMq-bio.PE
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第一批肽:益生元氨基酸和早期蛋白质之间的进化过渡

The first peptides: the evolutionary transition between prebiotic amino acids and early proteins

Peter van der Gulik, Serge Massar, Dimitri Gilis, Harry Buhrman, Marianne Rooman

摘要:

我们在这里试图解决的问题是,当第一批肽出现在原始地球上时,它们看起来是什么样子,以及它们完成了什么简单的催化活性。我们推测,早期的功能肽很短(3至8个氨基酸长),由那些氨基酸,甘氨酸,丙氨酸,缬氨酸和天冬氨酸,这是大量生产的许多益生元合成实验和陨石中观察到的,和天冬氨酸的负电荷的中和是由金属离子。我们进一步假设这些益生元肽的一些痕迹仍然存在,以当今蛋白质中活性位点的形式存在。在这些蛋白质中寻找益生元肽候选物,我们发现了主要与Mg^{2+}离子结合的三类基序:D(F/Y)DGD对应于RNA聚合酶中的活性位点,DGD(G/A)D存在于某些类型的突变酶中,DAKVGDGD存在于二羟丙酮激酶中。所有三个基序都含有一个DGD亚基序,这被认为是所有活性肽的共同祖先。此外,这三种基因都能操纵磷酸基团,这可能是生命最初阶段非常重要的生物学功能。我们的结果的统计学意义得到了这些基序在今天的蛋白质中的频率的支持,这比偶然预期的高出三倍,P值为3 × 10^{-2}。我们的研究结果的背景下,生命的外观和实验验证的可能性的影响进行了讨论。

英文摘要:

The issues we attempt to tackle here are what the first peptides did look like when they emerged on the primitive earth, and what simple catalytic activities they fulfilled. We conjecture that the early functional peptides were short (3 to 8 amino acids long), were made of those amino acids, Gly, Ala, Val and Asp, that are abundantly produced in many prebiotic synthesis experiments and observed in meteorites, and that the neutralization of Asp's negative charge is achieved by metal ions. We further assume that some traces of these prebiotic peptides still exist, in the form of active sites in present-day proteins. Searching these proteins for prebiotic peptide candidates led us to identify three main classes of motifs, bound mainly to Mg^{2+} ions: D(F/Y)DGD corresponding to the active site in RNA polymerases, DGD(G/A)D present in some kinds of mutases, and DAKVGDGD in dihydroxyacetone kinase. All three motifs contain a DGD submotif, which is suggested to be the common ancestor of all active peptides. Moreover, all three manipulate phosphate groups, which was probably a very important biological function in the very first stages of life. The statistical significance of our results is supported by the frequency of these motifs in today's proteins, which is three times higher than expected by chance, with a P-value of 3 10^{-2}. The implications of our findings in the context of the appearance of life and the possibility of an experimental validation are discussed.

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