Straightforward Creation of Possibly Prebiotic Complex Mixtures of Thiol-Rich Peptides

Abstract

At the origin of life, extremely diverse mixtures of oligomers and polymers could be obtained from relatively simple molecular bricks. Here, we present an example of the polymerization of two amidonitriles derived from cysteine, Cys-Ala-CN and Cys-Met-CN. The thiol function in a molecule adds onto the nitrile group of another one, allowing efficient condensation reactions and making available an extensive range of polymers containing amide bonds and/or five-membered heterocycles, namely thiazolines. Macrocycles were also identified, the biggest one containing sixteen residues (cyclo(Cys-Met)8). MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry was used to identify all the present species. What these examples show is that complex mixtures are likely to have formed on the primitive Earth and that, ultimately, the selection that must have followed may have been an even more crucial step towards life than the synthesis of the pre-biological species themselves.

Amino acid analogues provide multiple plausible pathways to prebiotic peptides

“…The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of reacting Ac-AA-SH, produced through Ac-AA-CN thiolysis, with AA-CN to form amide bonds, enabling continuous peptide synthesis (figure 5) [106]. Consequently, AA-CN can be employed as a means for peptide prebiotic synthesis.…”

From desolvation-induced self-organization on the MALDI anchor target chip surfaces to laser-induced self-organization in MALDI techniques: Correlation-spectral analysis and complex wavelet analysis of tesiographic spots on the anchor chips

“…It is well known, that MALDI MS frequently used for analysis of biological complex mixtures [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] . The applicability of Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization methods (MALDI) in computer-assisted identification of different biochemical constituents on ahcnor chips (also known as MALDI target plates, including barcoded machine-readable ones) [16][17][18] with areas on which the corresponding samples for identification are pipetted is a matter of common knowledge.…”