Review

Predicting the conformations of peptides and proteins in early evolution

E James Milner-White¹ and Michael J Russell²

¹  Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK

²  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA

author email corresponding author email

Biology Direct 2008, 3:3doi:10.1186/1745-6150-3-3

Published:	28 January 2008

Abstract

Considering that short, mainly heterochiral, polypeptides with a high glycine content are expected to have played a prominent role in evolution at the earliest stage of life before nucleic acids were available, we review recent knowledge about polypeptide three-dimensional structure to predict the types of conformations they would have adopted. The possible existence of such structures at this time leads to a consideration of their functional significance, and the consequences for the course of evolution.

This article was reviewed by Bill Martin, Eugene Koonin and Nick Grishin.