NAR Breakthrough article: 'RNA-directed peptide synthesis across a nicked loop'
NAR Nucleic Acids Research
Published by Oxford University Press - Impact Factor 16.7
by Meng Su, Samuel J Roberts, John D Sutherland
The Central Dogma dominates our understanding of modern biology. However, the mechanisms of how RNA directed peptide synthesis (translation) developed at the dawn of life remain a puzzle. In this study, we demonstrate that short peptides can spontaneously form at the end of a duplex RNA with an overhang. Contemporary proteins are composed exclusively of L-amino acids and our research reveals that L-amino acids with free amino groups are also more likely to participate in this prebiotic peptide synthesis mechanism. Conversely, when one of the amino acids is protected as it is in modern bacteria, this preference disappears. We demonstrate this chemistry can afford a variety of peptide sequences in a sequence-dependent manner.