A vestige of a prebiotic bonding machine is functioning within the contemporary ribosome
Miri Krupkin, Donna Matzov, Hua Tang, Markus Metz, Rinat Kalaora, Matthew J. Belousoff, Ella Zimmerman, Anat Bashan and Ada Yonath*
Author Affiliations
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
*Author for correspondence (ada.yonath@weizmann.ac.il).
Abstract
Based on the presumed capability of a prebiotic pocket-like entity to accommodate substrates whose stereochemistry enables the creation of chemical bonds, it is suggested that a universal symmetrical region identified within all contemporary ribosomes originated from an entity that we term the ‘proto-ribosome’. This ‘proto-ribosome’ could have evolved from an earlier machine that was capable of performing essential tasks in the RNA world, called here the ‘pre-proto-ribosome’, which was adapted for producing proteins.
proto-ribosome, ribosomal symmetrical region, peptide bond formation, RNA world
Footnotes
One contribution of 17 to a Discussion Meeting Issue ‘The chemical origins of life and its early evolution’.
This journal is © 2011 The Royal Society
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