Original title: Coenzyme-Protein Interactions since Early Life
Authors: Alma Carolina Sanchez Rocha,Mikhail Makarov,Lukas Pravda,Marian Novotny,Klara Hlouchova
This article discusses recent discoveries in the field of protein evolution and the potential role of peptides in the origin of life. Ancient protein families have been found to have common characteristics, and proteins composed of amino acids that are feasible in prebiotic settings have been shown to form structures and perform key functions. However, there has been a debate about the functional capabilities of peptides composed of a limited number of early amino acids. The study aims to investigate the ability of early peptides to bind to organic cofactors by analyzing protein-coenzyme interactions in the Protein Data Bank. The findings reveal that the prebiotically plausible amino acids are more prevalent in the binding sites of ancient coenzymes. Additionally, some modern enzymes demonstrate coenzyme binding using only prebiotically available amino acids. These results suggest the possibility of a collaboration between peptides and coenzymes before the evolution of the full protein alphabet.
Original article: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.28.563965v2