| Primary Source |
[38] Stouthamer, A.H. (1973) A theoretical study on the amount of ATP required for synthesis of microbial cell material. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 39, 545–565 [39] Lengeler, J.W. et al., eds (1999) Biology of the Prokaryotes, Thieme, Blackwell Science [40] Neidhardt, F.C. et al., eds (1990) Physiology of the Bacterial Cell, Sinauer AssociatesPubMed ID4148026
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| Comments |
P.14 2nd paragraph:"What are cells made of? E. coli consists of about 55% protein, 25% nucleic acids, 9% lipids, 6% cell wall, 2.5% glycogen and 3% metabolites (primary sources, Table 1). In the absence of evidence to the contrary, Occam's razor would ask [investigators] to posit that the first cells had a roughly similar composition. Protein is particularly attractive as the first substrate for the emergence of heterotrophs, not just because it is, weightwise, the main component of cell mass, but because, in autotrophs, the enzymatic machinery for handling amino acids was already in place. As autotrophs, the first cells had complete biosynthetic pathways for all amino acids, bases, and other cell components, such that few evolutionary (enzymatic) inventions, if any, were required to extract energy from those reduced carbon compounds, given suitable environmental conditions." See notes beneath table |