ArticleJournal of molecular evolution1997
Substrate-directed formation of small biocatalysts under prebiotic conditions.
Article in Journal of molecular evolution, 1997. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Functional abiotic metabolite assembly hypothesis for the early events in the origin of life.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Discovery and Analysis of Repeat and Low-Complexity Architectures in Proteins and Their Conserved Evolutionary Relationships Using Self-Homology Dot Plots.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Reciprocal Nucleopeptides as the Ancestral Darwinian Self-Replicator.Molecular biology and evolution · 2018Article
- Emergence of self-reproduction in cooperative chemical evolution of prebiological molecules.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2011Article
- Steps towards the formation of a protocell: the possible role of short peptides.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2007Article
- The structure and synthetic capabilities of a catalytic peptide formed by substrate-directed mechanism--implications to prebiotic catalysis.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2005Article
- ISSOL '02. Abstracts of the 13th International Conference on the Origin of Life. Oaxaca, Mexico, June 30-July 5, 2002.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2002Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
One of the most debated issues concerning the origin of life, is how enzymes which are essential for existence of any living organism, evolved. It is clear that, regardless of the exact mechanism, the process should have been specific and reproducible, involving interactions between different molecules. We propose that substrate templating played a crucial role in maintaining reproducible and specific formation of prebiotic catalysts. This work demonstrates experimentally, for the first time, substrate-directed formation of an oligopeptide that possesses a specific catalytic activity toward the substrate on which it was formed. In our experiments we used the substrate O-nitrophenol-beta-D-galactopyranoside (ONPG) as a molecular template for the synthesis of a specific catalyst that is capable of cleaving the same substrate. This was achieved by incubation of the substrate with free amino acids and a condensing agent (dicyandiamide) at elevated temperatures. A linear increase with time of the reaction rate (d[product]/d2t), pointed to an acceleration regime, where the substrate generates the formation of the catalyst. The purified catalyst, produced by a substrate-directed mechanism, was analyzed, and identified as Cys2-Fe+2. The mechanism of substrate-directed formation of prebiotic catalysts provides a solution to both the specificity and the reproducibility requirements from any prebiotic system which should evolve into the biological world.
Indexed as
Identifiers
9321413What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.