proteins

HURDLE NUMBER 3. THE PROTEIN FORMATION HURDLE.

The human body is composed chiefly of proteins. Proteins are chains of amino acids. If proteins were formed on the primordial Earth, they could not reproduce themselves. In any case, proteins could NOT form on the primordial Earth. The following quotes from authoritative sources substantiate this above claim:-

This quote is from the book The Spark of Life – Darwin and The Primeval Soup, by Christopher Wills (Professor of Biology at The University of California) and Jeffrey Bada (Professor of Marine Chemistry), published by Oxford University Press, 2001, page 53:-

“In a water solution - - - - - it is difficult to coax amino acids to join together - - - - In an aqueous solution of amino acids, peptide bond formation does not readily take place.”

(My comment:- When amino acids join together to form a protein, they join together by a type of chemical bond known as a “Peptide Bond”.)

The following quote suggests that, in the primordial soup, there would not be any amino acids in the first place available to join together to form proteins.

This quote is from the book Chemical Evolution, by S.E. Aw, Associate professor Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Singapore, published by University Education press, 1976, page 33:-

The author discusses the decomposition rates of amino acids:- “Complex formation with the many metallic cations so freely available will tend to remove amino acids from participating in peptide formation.”

The next quote is from the book The Origin of Life by John Maynard Smith (Emeritus Professor of Biology, University of Sussex) and E. Szathmary, published by Oxford University Press, 1999, pages 31 to 32:-

“Stanley Miller - - - - passing an electric discharge through - - - water, methane, and ammonia - - - - -organic compounds produced - - - - including - - - - amino acids - - - -Sidney Fox - - - - by heating and drying a mixture of amino acids, and then dissolving the mixture in water - - - - could obtain strings of amino acids - - - - Unfortunately - - - - the amino acids were linked together in a variety of ways, AND NOT ONLY BY PEPTIDE BONDS.” (My capitals.)

(My comment:- Proteins in biological organisms consist of chains of amino acids which are linked together by PEPTIDE BONDS, and only by PEPTIDE BONDS!. The proteins produced in the above laboratory experiments are chemical proteins, but they are NOT biological proteins. They could not have any viable biological function. In any case, even if proteins formed “correctly” with only peptide bonds could have emerged from the primordial soup, this would all be in vain, because proteins cannot reproduce themselves.)

The next quote come from the book Time’s Arrow and Evolution by Harold F. Blum (Visiting Professor at Princeton University - Harold Blum was an Assistant Professor of Animal Biology at the University of Oregon, then an instructor of physiology at Harvard Medical School. He became an Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor, of physiology at the University of California at Berkeley.), published by Princeton University Press, third edition, 1998, pages 157 to 158:-

“Even if the (primordial) soup contained a goodly concentration of amino acids, the chances of their forming spontaneously into long chains (ie:- into proteins) would seem remote.” Blum then states that “The free energy change for formation of the peptide bond is such that - - - - the probability of forming a polypeptide of only 10 amino acids would be (approximately) 10 ^{– 20} (ie:- One chance in 1 followed by 20 zeros). - - - - The spontaneous formation of a polypeptide the size of the smallest known proteins seems beyond all probability.”

(My comment:- A polypeptide is a string of amino acids linked by peptide bonds, in other words – a protein.)

The next quote is from the book The Origin of Pre-Biological Systems, edited by Sidney Fox (of The Institute of Molecular Evolution – University of Florida), published by Academic Press, NY and London, 1965. The article quoted from is Simulated Experiments in Spontaneous Organization of Morphological Units From Proteinoid by Sidney Fox, page 378:-

“The assumption that synthesis of polypeptides had to occur in the primitive oceans is not favored by rudimentary principles of chemical thermodynamics.”

On page 377 of this article is a quote from Dr. Carl Sagan (of Harvard University and The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Cambridge, Massachusetts - Sagan was a Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.)

Doctor Carl Sagan remarks – “Polynucleotides presumably were able to self-replicate: A polypeptide will just sit there.”

(My comment:- In other words, polypeptides or proteins cannot reproduce themselves. They will (in Sagan’s words), “just sit there.” Even if proteins could emerge from the primordial soup, it would all be in vain. They would eventually decompose, and it would be as if they had never existed in the first place. If evolution could ever have “got started” from a primordial soup, it could not have “got started” by way of proteins.)