A toy model of prebiotic peptide evolution: the possible role of relative amino acid abundances.

Abstract

This paper presents a mathematical-computational toy model based on the assumed dynamic principles of prebiotic peptide evolution. Starting from a pool of amino acid monomers, the model describes in a generalized manner the generation of peptides and their sequential information. The model integrates the intrinsic and dynamic key elements of the initiation of biopolymerization, such as the relative amino acid abundances and polarities, as well as the oligomer reversibility, i.e. fragmentation and recombination, and peptide self-replication. Our modeling results suggest that the relative amino acid abundances, as indicated by Miller-Urey type electric discharge experiments, played a principal role in the early sequential information of peptide profiles. Moreover, the computed profiles display an astonishing similarity to peptide profiles observed in so-called biological common ancestors found in the following three microorganisms; E. coli, M. jannaschii, and S. cereviasiae. The prebiotic peptide fingerprint was obtained by the so-called polarity index method that was earlier reported as a tool for the identification of cationic amphipathic antibacterial short peptides.