Enzyme evolution and the development of metabolic pathways

摘要: When Adolph von Bayer learned that Eduard Buchner had been awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of zymase, he remarked “this will bring fame, even though has no chemical talent” (Bloch, 1994). And yet, although Buchner’s first observations cell-free fermentation taken place during a trial run to obtain immunologically active bacterial proteins brother Hans’ laboratory, they would eventually become one cornerstones new science biochemistry. Although by then study soluble enzymes was already well-developed area research, were considered as biologically much less important than protoplasm itself, and many still adhered T. H. Huxley’s assertion “protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is formal basis all life” (Huxley, 1870). The recognition due enzymatic activity rapidly challenged views protoplasmic biology, led mechanistic enzyme-centred theory life (Kohler, 1971, 1972). different sometimes opposing ideas on actual nature coexisted (Ling, 1984; Welch, 1995),