From Mineral Support to Enzymatic Catalysis—Further Assumptions for the Evolutionary History of Glyoxalase System

In a previous paper we suggested that the methylglyoxalase pathway might have been an anaplerotic route for the archaic reductive citric acid cycle of surface metabolists at the early stage of evolution. The present paper tries to outline a possible way for the further development of enzyme catalysed glyoxalase path by separating the global process into several plausible evolutionary stages. A sequence of events is proposed which might have led to the emergence of energy rich bonds, especially to the formation of the thiol–ester bond. An explanation is given for the cofactor function of transition metals, as well. A proposition is also made for how nature may preserve molecular mechanisms using them for different purposes if the innovation has proved successful.