東京工業大学地球生命研究所(ELSI)主催ワークショップに参加

東京工業大学地球生命研究所(ELSI)主催のワークショップ(8月24日~26日)に池原先生が招待されました。

History and Philosophy of Origins Research Workshop

August 24-26th, 2016 in Tokyo, Japan

発表演題とAbstractは、下記です。

The Key for solving the Riddle on the Origin of Life is Protein 0th-order Structure

Kenji Ikehara

Until now, many researchers have tried to solve the riddle on the origin of life, according to the so-called bottom-up approach, as chemical analysis of extracts from old rocks and meteorites, physical, chemical and biochemical evolution experiments, planetary exploration and astronomical observation. Many studies from the stand-point of RNA world hypothesis have been also carried out, after catalytic RNAs or ribozymes were discovered.

As well known, all modern organisms live on the Earth under the fundamental life system, which is composed of gene, genetic code and protein. Therefore, the most important point for solving the riddle must be to make clear the formation process of the system. However, it is quite difficult to understand the process with the bottom-up approach and the RNA world hypothesis. For that reason, the riddle remains unanswered.

Then, how was the fundamental life system formed? The key to understanding how protein and gene were formed, is to appreciate the significance of a specific amino acid composition, or protein 0th-order structure, in which water-soluble globular proteins can be produced even by random joining of amino acids. Pseudo-replication of [GADV]-protein, which was synthesized in the protein 0th-order structure or [GADV]-amino acids could lead to the emergence of life. I will discuss about the significance of the protein 0th-order structure for the origin of life.