Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35454145›Full record

ArticleBiomolecules2022

Did Homocysteine Take Part in the Start of the Synthesis of Peptides on the Early Earth?

Sparta Youssef-Saliba, Anne Milet, Yannick Vallée

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biomolecules, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
0.6field-weighted citation impact, top 30% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Homocysteine Attack on Vascular Endothelium-Old and New Features.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Sparta Youssef-SalibaUniversity Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, DCM, F-38058 Grenoble, France.ORCID 0000-0003-2391-6460
Anne MiletUniversity Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, DCM, F-38058 Grenoble, France.ORCID 0000-0002-1480-4451
Yannick ValléeUniversity Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, DCM, F-38058 Grenoble, France.ORCID 0000-0002-8412-8989
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · FR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Unlike its shorter analog, cysteine, and its methylated derivative, methionine, homocysteine is not today a proteinogenic amino acid. However, this thiol containing amino acid is capable of forming an activated species intramolecularly. Its thiolactone could have made it an interesting molecular building block at the origin of life on Earth. Here we study the cyclization of homocysteine in water and show theoretically and experimentally that in an acidic medium the proportion of thiolactone is significant. This thiolactone easily reacts with amino acids to form dipeptides. We envision that these reactions may help interpret why a methionine residue is introduced at the start of all protein synthesis.

Indexed as

HomocysteinePeptidesCysteineMethionineSulfhydryl CompoundsCysteineHomocysteineMethioninePeptidesSulfhydryl Compoundsabiogenesishomocysteinepeptidesprebiotic chemistrythiolactone

Identifiers

PMID35454145
PMCPMC9031595
OpenAlexW4224293856

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.