Study by Indian-origin researcher, team could provide clues to extraterrestrial life

An Indian-origin researcher and a team of scientists from Rutgers University have identified part of a protein that could provide clues to detecting planets on the verge of producing life.

According to Vikas Nanda, a researcher at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine (CABM) at Rutgers, the research has important implications in the search for extraterrestrial life because it gives researchers a new clue to look for.

Based on laboratory studies, Rutgers scientists say one of the most likely chemical candidates that kickstarted life was a simple peptide — a constituent of a protein made up of a few elemental building blocks known as amino acids — with two nickel atoms. The two nickel atoms are called “Nickelback” because its backbone nitrogen atoms bond two critical nickel atoms.

 

“Scientists believe that some time between 3.5 and 3.8 billion years ago, there was a tipping point, something that kickstarted the change from prebiotic chemistry – molecules before life – to living, biological systems,” Nanda said. “We believe the change was sparked by a few small precursor proteins that performed key steps in an ancient metabolic reaction. And we think we’ve found one of these ‘pioneer peptides’.

“When scouring the universe with telescopes and probes for signs of past, present or emerging life, NASA scientists look for specific ‘biosignatures’ known to be harbingers of life. Peptides like nickelback could become the latest biosignature employed by NASA to detect planets on the verge of producing life,” Nanda said.

An original instigating chemical, the researchers reasoned, would need to be simple enough to be able to assemble spontaneously in a prebiotic soup. But it would have to be sufficiently chemically active to possess the potential to take energy from the environment to drive a biochemical process.

To do so, the researchers adopted a “reductionist” approach: They started by examining existing contemporary proteins known to be associated with metabolic processes. Knowing the proteins were too complex to have emerged early on, they pared them down to their basic structure.

After sequences of experiments, researchers concluded the best candidate was Nickelback. The peptide is made of 13 amino acids and binds two nickel ions.

Nickel, they reasoned, was an abundant metal in early oceans. When bound to the peptide, the nickel atoms become potent catalysts, attracting additional protons and electrons and producing hydrogen gas.

Hydrogen, the researchers reasoned, was also more abundant on early Earth and would have been a critical source of energy to power metabolism.

“This is important because, while there are many theories about the origins of life, there are very few actual laboratory tests of these ideas,” Nanda said. “This work shows that not only are simple protein metabolic enzymes possible, but that they are very stable and very active – making them a plausible starting point for life.”

The scientists conducting the study, published in Science Advances, are part of a Rutgers-led team called Evolution of Nanomachines in Geospheres and Microbial Ancestors (ENIGMA), which is part of the Astrobiology programme at NASA.

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