Review
Predicting the conformations of peptides and proteins in early evolution
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* Corresponding author: E James Milner-White J.Milner-White@bio.gla.ac.uk
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
Biology Direct 2008, 3:3 doi:10.1186/1745-6150-3-3
Published: 28 January 2008Abstract
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.