Aithal Anuraag, Dagar Shikha, Rajamani Sudha
Department of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, Maharashtra 411008, India.
ACS Omega. 2023 Jan 31;8(6):5197-5208. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c07635. eCollection 2023 Feb 14.
Proteinaceous catalysts found in extant biology are products of life that were potentially derived through prolonged periods of evolution. Given their complexity, it is reasonable to assume that they were not accessible to prebiotic chemistry as such. Nevertheless, the dependence of many enzymes on metal ions or metal-ligand cores suggests that catalysis relevant to biology could also be possible with just the metal centers. Given their availability on the Hadean/Archean Earth, it is fair to conjecture that metal ions could have constituted the first forms of catalysts. A slow increase of complexity that was facilitated through the provision of organic ligands and amino acids/peptides possibly allowed for further evolution and diversification, eventually demarcating them into specific functions. Herein, we summarize some key experimental developments and observations that support the possible roles of metal catalysts in shaping the origins of life. Further, we also discuss how they could have evolved into modern-day enzymes, with some suggestions for what could be the imminent next steps that researchers can pursue, to delineate the putative sequence of catalyst evolution during the early stages of life.
现存生物学中发现的蛋白质催化剂是生命的产物，它们可能是经过长时间进化而来的。鉴于其复杂性，有理由认为它们本身并非前生物化学所能触及的。然而，许多酶对金属离子或金属 - 配体核心的依赖性表明，仅金属中心也可能实现与生物学相关的催化作用。鉴于它们在冥古宙/太古宙地球上的可得性，可以合理推测金属离子可能构成了最早的催化剂形式。通过提供有机配体和氨基酸/肽促进的复杂性缓慢增加，可能允许进一步的进化和多样化，最终将它们划分为特定功能。在此，我们总结了一些关键的实验进展和观察结果，这些结果支持金属催化剂在塑造生命起源中可能发挥的作用。此外，我们还讨论了它们如何进化为现代酶，并对研究人员接下来可能采取的紧迫步骤提出了一些建议，以描绘生命早期阶段催化剂进化的假定顺序。
