Origin of proteins (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, October 19, 2013, 15:44 (4053 days ago)

Proteins in life are large complicated folded molecules made up of 20 amino acids. Their origin as functional parts of life is obscure. These functional molecules are difficult to create in the lab. Enzymes help tremendously, but how do you do the job before enzymes existed?-"Evolution has this catch-22: Nothing evolves unless it already exists." -http://www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday/asbmbtoday_article.aspx?id=48961-Could enzymes have been supplied at the beginning?-"Despite proteins' profound impact on life, their origin is not well understood. What caused a string of amino acids to start doing something? Or are strings of amino acids inherently programmed to do things? These are questions with which researchers in the protein-origin field have been grappling."-"Over all, what the field of protein evolution needs are some plausible, solid hypotheses to explain how random sequences of amino acids turned into the sophisticated entities that we recognize today as proteins. Until that happens, the phenomenon of the rise of proteins will remain, as Tawfik says, "something like close to a miracle.'"