JTW's Evolutionary Origins - Author: Wachtershauser, Gunter

The Importance of Low-Propensity Reactions in Biochemical Evolution

"From the point of view of evolution, however, they [low-propensity branch reactions] constitute the wellspring of genuine evolutionary variations. For on occasion, one of these (low-propensity) branch constituents will show a positive feedback effect by turning into a catalyst for a rate-limiting reaction within the autocatalytic cycle(s). Such a catalytic effect is itself cyclic: the catalyst (e.g. TPP) combines with a reactant in the autocatalytic cycle; the catalyst-reactant adduct undergoes subsequent conversion into a catalyst-product (faster than conversion of the reactant into product); finally, the catalyst-product adduct is cleaved into the product and the catalyst."
(Wachtershauser, 1992)

• Wachtershauser, Gunter
  • Groundworks for an Evolutionary Biochemistry: The Iron-Sulphur World
  • Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology: Vol. 58, No. 2, pp.85-202
  • 1992
  • [Pubmed]

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