Irena Mamajanov et al.
Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, 45(1-2), 123-137 (2015-05-21)
Proteins are responsible multiple biological functions, such as ligand binding, catalysis, and ion channeling. This functionality is enabled by proteins' three-dimensional structures that require long polypeptides. Since plausibly prebiotic synthesis of functional polypeptides has proven challenging in the laboratory, we