Recently a group of scientists, which is dedicated to determining the origins of the originals of the metabolisma set of basic chemical reactions that could have powered life on planet Earth for the first time, has succeeded in identifying part of a protein that could provide clues to detect planets about to produce life.
According Vikas Nandaresearcher at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine (CABM) of the Rutgers Universitythe study has important implications in the search for extraterrestrial life, as it gives researchers a new clue to look for.
Thus, based on laboratory studies, Rutgers University scientists say that one of the most likely chemical candidates to start life was a simple peptide with two nickel atoms to which called “Nickelback”named because the nitrogen atoms in its backbone link two critical nickel atoms.
According to the document published in “Science Advances”, the scientists took a “reductionist” approach, so they began to examine existing contemporary proteins known to be linked to metabolic processes. Thus, knowing that proteins were too complex to have arisen before, they reduced them to their basic structure.
After various sequences of experiments, the researchers came to the conclusion that the best candidate was Nickelback, peptide made up of 13 amino acids that binds two nickel ions.
It was in this way that they pointed out that nickel, having been an abundant metal in the first oceans, when attached to the peptide, its atoms become powerful catalysts that attract additional protons and electrons and produce gaseous hydrogen. He hydrogenthe scientists say, was also more abundant on early Earth and would have been a critical source of energy to fuel metabolism.
“This is important because, while there are many theories about the origins of life, there is very little actual laboratory evidence for these ideas. This work shows that not only are simple protein metabolic enzymes possible, but they are very stable and highly active, making them a plausible starting point for life,” Nanda said.
#substance #explains #life #Earth #planets #scientists