Sprecher
Beschreibung
On the path to modern protein-dominated biology, life on earth has gone through multiple stages. Yet, even before life appeared, numerous amino acids have been accessible through prebiotic chemistry. It is therefore conceivable that the chemical functionality of amino acids or even short peptides has been utilized since the earliest stages of life. Later, the emergence of DNA-encoded protein synthesis greatly facilitated the use of peptides. Evolution eventually led to the modern universal genetic code, likely starting initially with a smaller set of early amino acids. Numerous studies have speculated on the genesis of amino acids and the history of the genetic code. Nevertheless, the evolutionary connection between primordial amino acids generated by prebiotic chemistry and today’s highly functional proteins composed of the standard amino acids is still largely lacking experimental support.
We are investigating the functional capabilities of polypeptides with limited amino acid compositions. Our experiments will examine the ability of primitive alphabets, composed of substantially fewer than twenty different amino acids, to support structured proteins and enable simple functions such as cofactor binding. We will address how the chemical diversity of random polypeptides influences structure and function, and if a minimum alphabet is necessary to confer a biological function. By generating tangible empirical data in a field of research that has been largely dominated by theoretical approaches, this project has the potential to provide critical insights into the history of the standard amino acid alphabet.
Reference:
Newton, Morrone, Lee, Seelig, B. (2019) Genetic code evolution investigated through synthesis and characterisation of proteins from reduced alphabet libraries. ChemBioChem. (20) 846-856.
