Remnants of an Ancient Metabolism without Phosphate

Goldford, Joshua E.; Hartman, Hyman; Smith, Temple F.; Segrè, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2017.02.001

Title: Remnants of an Ancient Metabolism without Phosphate

Journal Article · Thu Mar 09 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Cell

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2017.02.001· OSTI ID:1377637

Goldford, Joshua E. ^[1]; Hartman, Hyman ^[2]; Smith, Temple F. ^[3]; Segrè, Daniel ^[4]

Boston Univ., MA (United States). Bioinformatics Program
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Earth, Atmosphere and Planetary Science Dept.
Boston Univ., MA (United States). Bioinformatics Program and Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Boston Univ., MA (United States). Bioinformatics Program and Dept. of Biomedical Engineering and Dept. of Biology and Dept. of Physics

Phosphate is essential for all living systems, serving as a building block of genetic and metabolic machinery. However, it is unclear how phosphate could have assumed these central roles on primordial Earth, given its poor geochemical accessibility. We used systems biology approaches to explore the alternative hypothesis that a protometabolism could have emerged prior to the incorporation of phosphate. Surprisingly, we identified a cryptic phosphate-independent core metabolism producible from simple prebiotic compounds. This network is predicted to support the biosynthesis of a broad category of key biomolecules. Its enrichment for enzymes utilizing iron-sulfur clusters, and the fact that thermodynamic bottlenecks are more readily overcome by thioester rather than phosphate couplings, suggest that this network may constitute a ‘‘metabolic fossil’’ of an early phosphate-free nonenzymatic biochemistry. Thus, our results corroborate and expand previous proposals that a putative thioester-based metabolism could have predated the incorporation of phosphate and an RNA-based genetic system.

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Research Organization:: Boston Univ., MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); European Union (EU); National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012627; DEB-07NA273441457695; NSFOCE-BSF-1635070; T32GM100842

OSTI ID:: 1377637

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1425650

Journal Information:: Cell, Journal Name: Cell Vol. 168 Journal Issue: 6; ISSN 0092-8674

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 129 works

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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES
origin of life
phosphate
thioester world
network expansion
systems biology

Title: Remnants of an Ancient Metabolism without Phosphate

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