Coenzyme Autocatalytic Network on the Surface of Oil Microspheres as a Model for the Origin of Life
Open accessAbstract
Coenzymes are often considered as remnants of primordial metabolism, but not as hereditary molecules. I suggest that coenzyme-like molecules (CLMs) performed hereditary functions before the emergence of nucleic acids. Autocatalytic CLMs modified (encoded) surface properties of hydrocarbon microspheres, to which they were anchored, and these changes enhanced autocatalysis and propagation of CLMs. Heredity started from a single kind of self-reproducing CLM, and then evolved into more complex coenzyme autocatalytic networks containing multiple kinds of CLMs. Polymerization of CLMs on the surface of microspheres and development of template-based synthesis is a potential evolutionary path towards the emergence of nucleic acids.
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Present-day low molecular weight cofactors may have been early non-protein catalysts.
“This notion obtains further support from the experiment-based proposals that present-day low molecular weight cofactors may have been early non-protein catalysts [32,204,205,213,214].”
From Systems protobiology: origin of life in lipid catalytic networks (2018) · cites this paper as [205]
The Introduction and the Results section on primordial code-driven systems propose that small, catalytic coenzyme-like molecules resembling contemporary coenzymes existed early in life's history. But the Discussion section, “Can We Re-Create the Origin of Life?” says the model is not ready for experimental testing. This supports the proposed catalytic role, not the description of this paper as an experiment-based proposal or the implication that present-day cofactors themselves were the early catalysts. (LLM, conf=0.89)
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- Authors
- Sharov, A. A.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Sharov, Alexei A.
- ORCID
- Sharov, Alexei A.
- Venue
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2009-04-22
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1838-1852
- ISSN
- 1422-0067 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2680650
- OpenAlex
- W2172276932
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute on Aging
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Keywords
- origin of life, coenzymes, autocatalysis, autocatalytic networks, heredity (biology), template synthesis
- MeSH terms
- Origin of Life, Catalysis, Coenzymes, Biological Evolution, Microspheres, Models, Biological, Oils, RNA
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