Summary
The effect of the exchangeable cation on the condensation of glycine and alanine was investigated using a series of homoionic bentonites. A cycling procedure of drying, warming and wetting was employed. Peptide bond formation was observed, and the effectiveness of metal ions to catalyze the condensation was Cu2+ > Ni2+ ≈ Zn2+ > Na+. Glycine showed 6% of the monomer incorporated into oligomers with the largest detected being the pentamer. Alanine showed less peptide bond formation (a maximum of 2%) and only the dimer was observed.
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Lawless, J.G., Levi, N. The role of metal ions in chemical evolution: Polymerization of alanine and glycine in a cation-exchanged clay environment. J Mol Evol 13, 281–286 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01731368
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01731368