On the antiquity of metalloenzymes and their substrates in bioenergetics
Open accessAbstract
Many metalloenzymes that inject and extract reducing equivalents at the beginning and the end of electron transport chains involved in chemiosmosis are suggested, through phylogenetic analysis, to have been present in the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). Their active centres are affine with the structures of minerals presumed to contribute to precipitate membranes produced on the mixing of hydrothermal solutions with the Hadean Ocean ~4 billion years ago. These mineral precipitates consist of transition element sulphides and oxides such as nickelian mackinawite ([Fe>Ni]2S2), a nickel-bearing greigite (~FeSS[Fe3NiS4]SSFe), violarite (~NiSS[Fe2Ni2S4]SSNi), a molybdenum bearing complex (~Mo(IV/VI)2Fe3S(0/2-)9) and green rust or fougerite (~[Fe(II)Fe(III)(OH)4](+)[OH](-)). They may be respectively compared with the active centres of Ni-Fe hydrogenase, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH), acetyl coenzyme-A synthase (ACS), the complex iron-sulphur molybdoenzyme (CISM) superfamily and methane monooxygenase (MMO). With the look of good catalysts - a suggestion that gathers some support from prebiotic hydrothermal experimentation - and sequestered by short peptides, they could be thought of as the original building blocks of proto-enzyme active centres. This convergence of the makeup of the LUCA-metalloenzymes with mineral structure and composition of hydrothermal precipitates adds credence to the alkaline hydrothermal (chemiosmotic) theory for the emergence of life, specifical…
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The first biochemical pathways evolved based on already operating geochemical reactions.
“The similarities between naturally occurring minerals and carbon fixation enzymes are unlikely to be coincidences, and an emerging model is that the first biochemical pathways evolved based on already operating geochemical reactions (Cody and Scott, 2007; Nitschke et al., 2013; Russell et al., 2013, Sousa et al., 2013).”
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- Authors
- Nitschke, W., McGlynn, S. E., Milner-White, E. J., & Russell, M. J.
- Affiliations
- Bioénergétique et Ingénierie des Protéines (FR)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
- Corresponding author
- Russell, Michael J.
- Venue
- Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-08
- Volume
- 1827
- Issue
- 8-9
- Pages
- 871-881
- ISSN
- 0005-2728 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2012348445
- Cited by
- 152
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 5.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- NASA Astrobiology Institute
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Metalloenzymes and iron-sulfur proteins
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Keywords
- metalloenzymes, origin of life, last universal common ancestor, chemiosmosis, electron transport chain, alkaline hydrothermal vents, [NiFe] hydrogenase, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase, methane monooxygenase, mackinawite, greigite, violarite, green rust, prebiotic catalysis, acetyl-CoA pathway, bioenergetics, transition metal sulfides
- MeSH terms
- Energy Metabolism, Enzymes, Metals, Substrate Specificity, Biocatalysis
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