JTW's Evolutionary Origins - Author: White III, Harold B.

The Antiquity of Coenzymes and their Evolutionary Conservation

"The fact that so many coenzymes are nucleotides or heterocyclic bases that could be part of nucleotides intrigued me as did the fact that more than half of all characterized enzymes require these coenzymes to catalyze the essential chemistry.

In fact, when metal ions are considered, relatively few enzymes are exclusively protein catalysts.

It seemed to me that proteins were an epiphenomenon built around a preexisting catalytic core made of nucleotides."

[Harold B. White III, 2002, pp. 1267-1271]

• White III, Harold B.
  • Coenzymes as Fossils of an Earlier Metabolic State
  • Journal of Molecular Evolution: Vol. 7, Is. 2, pp. 101-104
  • March 29, 1976
  • [Pubmed]
• • Konrad Bloch, Evolution, and The RNA World
  • Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications: Vol. 292, Is. 5, pp. 1267-1271
  • April 19, 2002
  • [Pubmed]

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