ArticlePloS one2012
Cyanobacteria produce N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine, a backbone for peptide nucleic acids which may have been the first genetic molecules for life on Earth.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- Approaching life in a test tube with prebiotic chemistry.Communications chemistry · 2026Review
- Airborne Cyanobacterial Toxins and Their Links to Neurodegenerative Diseases.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Astrobiological implications of the stability and reactivity of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) in concentrated sulfuric acid.Science advances · 2025Article
- New perspectives on picocyanobacteria and understudied cyanobacterial diversity in the Albemarle Pamlico sound system, North Carolina, USA.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Cyanotoxin accumulation and growth patterns of biocrust communities under variable environmental conditions.Toxicon: X · 2024Article
- Neurotoxic non-protein amino acids in commercially harvested Lobsters (Homarus americanus H. Milne-Edwards).Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Environmental Neurotoxin β-Microorganisms · 2022Review
- A Short Tale of the Origin of Proteins and Ribosome Evolution.Microorganisms · 2022Review
- Article
- Microscope Assisted Uni-algal isolation through Dilution (MAU-D): a simple modified technique for tapping diverse cyanobacteria.3 Biotech · 2021Article
- Review
- A Single Laboratory Validation for the Analysis of Underivatized β-N-Methylamino-L-Alanine (BMAA).Neurotoxicity research · 2021Article
- Biocrust-Produced Cyanotoxins Are Found Vertically in the Desert Soil Profile.Neurotoxicity research · 2021Article
- Toxin Analysis of Freshwater Cyanobacterial and Marine Harmful Algal Blooms on the West Coast of Florida and Implications for Estuarine Environments.Neurotoxicity research · 2021Article
- Article
- Methods for the Chemical Analysis of β-N-Methylamino-L-A lanine: What Is Known and What Remains to Be Determined.Neurotoxicity research · 2018Review
- Thermal decomposition of the amino acids glycine, cysteine, aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid, glutamine, arginine and histidine.BMC biophysics · 2018Article
- Analysis of Neurotoxic Amino Acids from Marine Waters, Microbial Mats, and Seafood Destined for Human Consumption in the Arabian Gulf.Neurotoxicity research · 2018Article
- Cyanobacterial Neurotoxins: Their Occurrence and Mechanisms of Toxicity.Neurotoxicity research · 2018Review
- Peptide nucleic acids: Advanced tools for biomedical applications.Journal of biotechnology · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Prior to the evolution of DNA-based organisms on earth over 3.5 billion years ago it is hypothesized that RNA was the primary genetic molecule. Before RNA-based organisms arose, peptide nucleic acids may have been used to transmit genetic information by the earliest forms of life on earth. We discovered that cyanobacteria produce N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine (AEG), a backbone for peptide nucleic acids. We detected AEG in axenic strains of cyanobacteria with an average concentration of 1 µg/g. We also detected AEG in environmental samples of cyanobacteria as both a free or weakly bound molecule and a tightly bound form released by acid hydrolysis, at concentrations ranging from not detected to 34 µg/g. The production of AEG by diverse taxa of cyanobacteria suggests that AEG may be a primitive feature which arose early in the evolution of life on earth.
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