Peptidyl transferase center and the emergence of the translation system

Abstract

In this work, the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the ancestral Peptidyl Transferase Center (PTC) built by concatamers of ancestral sequences of tRNAs was reconstructed, and its possible interactions with tRNAs molecules were analyzed. The 3D structure of the ancestral PTC was also compared with the current PTC of T. thermophilus. Docking experiments between the ancestral PTC and tRNAs suggest that in the origin of the translation system, the PTC functioned as an adhesion center for tRNA molecules. The approximation of tRNAs charged with amino acids to the PTC permitted peptide synthesis without the need of a genetic code.