An evolutionary role of formaldehyde

The evolution can be divided into three stages: chemical, prebiological and biological evolution. Most of the problems emerge when the development of cellular organization, the so-called prebiological evolution, is investigated. Here the possible evolutionary roles for formaldehyde as well as for the methylglyoxalase pathway are proposed. The theory, on the one hand, ascertaines a pathway serving as an anaplerotic route for the reductive citric acid cycle of surface metabolists and using formaldehyde as raw molecule. On the other hand, an explanation for the glyoxalase enigma is offered hoping that in this way a long lasting mystery of almost nine decades biochemical research can be solved.