Prebiotic Environments with Mg²⁺ and Thiophilic Metal Ions Increase the Thermal Stability of Cysteine and Non-cysteine Peptides.

ABSTRACT: Wet-dry cycles driven by heating to high temperatures are frequently invoked for the prebiotic synthesis of peptides. Similarly, iron-sulfur clusters are often cited as an example of an ancient catalyst that helped prune early chemical systems into metabolic-like pathways. Because extant iron-sulfur clusters are metallocofactors of protein enzymes and nearly ubiquitous across biology, a reasonable hypothesis is that prebiotic iron-sulfur peptides formed on the early Earth. However, iron-sulfur clusters are coordinated by multiple cysteine residues, and the stability of cysteines to the heat steps of wet-dry cycles has not been determined. It, therefore, has remained unclear if the peptides needed to stabilize the formation of iron-sulfur clusters could have formed. If not, then iron-sulfur

SUBMITTER: Rossetto D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9126146 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature