Scientists have identified a small protein molecule that they say is one of the most promising chemical candidates for starting life and could provide clues to the discovery of habitable planets beyond Earth..
The team says the findings were recently published in the journal Science advancesThis has important implications for the search for extraterrestrial life because it provides scientists with new clues to search for..This is what was published on the Russia Today website.
Scientists, including researchers from Rutgers University in the US, found that a simple peptide molecule containing two nickel atoms was one of the molecules most likely to have ignited life on Earth, which they called the short protein molecule. NickelbackIt consists of nitrogen atoms connected by a primary conductor with two nickel atoms.
“Scientists believe that sometime between 3.5 and 3.8 billion years ago, there was a tipping point, something that caused a shift from prebiotic chemistry — molecules of prebiotics — to biologically active systems.“He continued: We believe this change is caused by a few small precursor proteins that have taken key steps in an ancient metabolic reaction, and we believe we have found one of the leading peptides.“In this study, scientists hoped to understand how proteins evolved to become the main drivers of life on Earth, and the research could help astronomers search for signs of past, current, or emerging life, and for specific life-signature molecules. Look in other parts of the earth. The team concluded that the primordial chemical that ignited life must have been simple enough to have spontaneously accumulated in bodies of water on early Earth, but the chemical must also have been sufficiently reactive. metabolic processes and their reduction to their original structure.
Scientists have found that the best candidate NickelbackIt is a peptide of 13 amino acids that binds two separate nickel atoms together, because the element nickel was also abundant in the oceans of early Earth, and the research team said that nickel atoms when linked to the peptide become strong catalysts, which means that such a structure is simple enough to produce organic molecules. and stable under conditions of extreme temperature and high acidity, which may support the origin of life..