The ATP Hypothesis Discovers the Missing “Matchmaker” between Proteins and Nucleic Acids

Ping Xie

doi:10.20944/preprints202003.0419.v8

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preprints.org > biology and life sciences > biochemistry and molecular biology > doi: 10.20944/preprints202003.0419.v8

Preprint Hypothesis Version 8 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

The ATP Hypothesis Discovers the Missing “Matchmaker” between Proteins and Nucleic Acids

Ping Xie

Version 1 : Received: 28 March 2020 / Approved: 29 March 2020 / Online: 29 March 2020 (04:08:22 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 1 April 2020 / Approved: 2 April 2020 / Online: 2 April 2020 (05:16:09 CEST)
Version 3 : Received: 17 April 2020 / Approved: 19 April 2020 / Online: 19 April 2020 (04:00:24 CEST)
Version 4 : Received: 11 July 2020 / Approved: 12 July 2020 / Online: 12 July 2020 (14:28:35 CEST)
Version 5 : Received: 26 July 2020 / Approved: 26 July 2020 / Online: 26 July 2020 (17:40:23 CEST)
Version 6 : Received: 6 August 2020 / Approved: 7 August 2020 / Online: 7 August 2020 (06:53:34 CEST)
Version 7 : Received: 16 August 2020 / Approved: 20 August 2020 / Online: 20 August 2020 (08:54:53 CEST)
Version 8 : Received: 30 August 2020 / Approved: 31 August 2020 / Online: 31 August 2020 (08:05:13 CEST)
Version 9 : Received: 9 September 2020 / Approved: 11 September 2020 / Online: 11 September 2020 (08:39:39 CEST)
Version 10 : Received: 28 January 2021 / Approved: 29 January 2021 / Online: 29 January 2021 (15:26:13 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Xie P. 2021. Who is the missing “matchmaker” between proteins and nucleic acids?, The Innovation 2(3), 100120 （DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100120） Xie P. 2021. Who is the missing “matchmaker” between proteins and nucleic acids?, The Innovation 2(3), 100120 （DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100120）

Abstract

A plenty of theories on the origin of genetic codes have been proposed so far, yet all ignored the energetic driving force, its relation to the biochemical system, and most importantly, the missing “matchmaker” between proteins and nucleic acids. Here, a new hypothesis is proposed, according to which ATP is at the origin of the primordial genetic code by driving the coevolution of the genetic code with the pristine biochemical system. This hypothesis aims to show how the genetic code was produced by photochemical reactions in a protocell that derived from a lipid vesicle enclosing various life’s building blocks (e.g. nucleotides and peptides). At extant cell, ATP is the only energetic product of photosynthesis, and is at the energetic heart of the biochemical systems. ATP could energetically form and elongate chains of both polynucleotides and polypeptides, thus acting a “matchmaker” between these two bio-polymers and eventually mediating precellular biochemical innovation from energy transformation to informatization. ATP was not the only one that could drive the formation of polynucleotides and polypeptides, but favored by precellular selection. The protocell innovated a photosynthesis system to produce ATP efficiently and regularly with the aids of proteins and RNA/DNA. The completion of permanently recording the genetic information by DNA marked the dawn of cellular life operated by Darwinian evolution. The ATP hypothesis supports the photochemical origin of life, shedding light on the origins of both photosynthetic and biochemical systems, which remains largely unknown thus far.

Keywords

ATP hypothesis; origin of genetic code; life’s building block; probiotic “soup”; coevolution; biochemical system; missing “matchmaker”; energy transformation; informatization; structuralization; precellular selection; photochemical origin of life

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Comments (1)

Comment 1

Received: 31 August 2020
Commenter: Ping Xie
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author

Comment: I newly added three figures: Fig.1 shows who is the “matchmaker” between nucleic acids and proteins, Fig. 3 shows various hypotheses on the origin of life, and Fig. 4 shows possible relations between the ATP hypothesis and the other hypotheses on the origin of the genetic code. These would greatly improve the readability and quality of the manuscript as well as its significance.

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