Bioorganic chemistry and the origin of life

Abstract

A challenging theme in bioorganic chemistry is the unification of established theories of biochemistry and organic chemistry to provide new patterns for interpretation and experimentation. Especially relevant examples of such interactions can be drawn from the field of enzyme catalysis and, in particular, the role of cofactors therein. Knowledge of the chemical mechanisms by which some of the cofactors function has progressed rapidly with the aid of studies of the cofactors themselves (or compounds of related structure, "models") stripped of the accompanying apoenzyme. The striking successes in this field likely arise from a fundamental resemblance between bioorganic chemistry (especially coenzyme models) and chemical evolution before the appearance of coded polypeptide enzymes.