The article by Mark Greener1 and commentary by the Editor2 give us a superb view of the present and future of enzymology, but there are also lessons to be learned by revisiting its past that suggest how enzymes came into being and how they relate to the origin of life.3Enzymes accelerate biochemical processes by factors ranging up to a billion billion (1018) fold.4 A reasonable speculation is that the first evolutionary structure contained one protein molecule that replicated with extreme slowne

Evolutionary Role of Left-handed Proteins Professor Graham Cook's suggestion1 that serine in the primordial soup played a role in determining the left-handedness of amino acids in organisms is complemented by the possibility that this amino acid played a critical role in initiating evolution of the genetic code.2 Serine-containing peptides form hydrogen bonds to the nucleotide base cytosine, as shown in the accompanying formulation. The presence of serine codons largely in the cytosine col