The question of how life first sparked into existence on our planet is one we haven't yet fully answered, but science is getting closer all the time – and a new study identifies the structures of the proteins that may well have made it happen.
Since metals are the best elements to carry out electron transfer, and the complex molecules called proteins are what drives most biological processes, the researchers decided to combine the two and search for proteins that bind metals.
These shared features may well have been present and working in the earliest proteins, the researchers suggest, changing over time to become the proteins we see today – but keeping certain common structures.that soluble metals in the Archean Ocean that covered Earth thousands of millions of years ago could have been used to power the electron shuffling required for energy transfer and, in turn, biological life.
The study also concludes that biologically functional peptides, the smaller versions of proteins, may have predated the earliest proteins which go back as far as 3.8 billion years ago. This all adds to our understanding ofAs always, any analysis of the beginnings of life on Earth can be important in looking for life on other planets too, where life might begin to evolve along similar biological paths.
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