Origin of ATP phosphate esters and sulfur thio-esters in early Life

所有的生命都需要能量。生物学中能量收集的一个主要途径是底物水平磷酸化，其由酶甘油醛3-磷酸脱氢酶进行。这种酶是如何进化的，它最初的化学反应性是什么仍然是未知的。今年，我们成功地调查了来自嗜热细菌的甘油醛3-磷酸脱氢酶的化学反应性。令我们惊讶的是，我们发现了一种新的酶促反应，据我们所知，这是以前没有报道过的。此外，我们发现，在我们实验室内唯一操纵的测定条件可以以令人惊讶的且仍不完全理解的方式改变酶活性的反应动力学。我们正着手将这些结果起草成手稿，与科学界分享。我们的结果意义深远。首先，他们对糖酵解的中心能量收集酶提供了新的见解，糖酵解广泛分布在生命之树中。其次，我们的研究结果提供了新的见解，可用于讨论这种迷人的酶，完成底物磷酸化可能的祖先活动。

All life requires energy. One major pathway of energy harvesting in biology is substrate level phosphorylation, which is carried out by the enzyme glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. How this enzyme evolved, and what its original chemical reactivity was remains unknown.In this year we successfully surveyed the chemical reactivity of the enzyme glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase from a thermophilic bacterium. To our surprise, we have identified a new enzymatic reaction which to our knowledge has not been reported before. In addition we find that the conditions of the assay which are being uniquely manipulated within our laboratory can change the reaction kinetics of the enzyme activity in surprising and still not completely understood ways. We are proceeding to draft these results into a manuscript to share with the scientific community.Our results are far reaching. First, they give new insights into the central energy harvesting enzyme of glycolysis which is widely distributed across the tree of life. Second, our results provide new insights which can be used to discuss the possible ancestral activity of this fascinating enzyme which accomplishes substrate phosphorylation.