Reduced-amino-acid enzyme model reportedly catalyzes ATP production
SCIENCEUnverifiedUpdated:
A research group involving RIKEN, Waseda University and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences reports that an enzyme model built from fewer types of amino acids catalyzed production of ATP, the cell’s energy currency, by a different mechanism from the original enzyme.
Catalytic function with fewer amino-acid types
The group made a primitive enzyme model using fewer types of amino acids than modern enzymes and examined its function. It reported that the model could catalyze a reaction that produces ATP.
The report compares the reduced-amino-acid enzyme with its original enzyme in terms of the ATP-production mechanism, but provides no comparable quantitative baseline.
According to the research report, reducing the types of amino acids in an enzyme produced a model able to catalyze ATP formation through a mechanism not present in the original enzyme.
A mechanism absent from the original enzyme
The reported result links a simplified enzyme model to ATP production and identifies a catalytic mechanism absent from the original enzyme.
Sources
- 理化学研究所 研究成果生命のエネルギー通貨ATPをつくる「原始的酵素モデル」を構築Read source →