2018
DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201700555
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Effects of Pressure and pH on the Hydrolysis of Cytosine: Implications for Nucleotide Stability around Deep‐Sea Black Smokers

Abstract: The relatively low chemical stability of cytosine compared with other nucleobases is a key concern in origin-of-life scenarios, but the effect of pressure on the rate of hydrolysis of cytosine to uracil remains unknown. Through in situ NMR spectroscopy measurements, it has been determined that the half-life of cytosine at 373.15 K decreases from (18.0±0.7) days at ambient pressure (0.1 MPa) to (8.64±0.18) days at high pressure (200 MPa). This yields an activation volume for hydrolysis of (-11.8±0.5) cm mol ; a… Show more

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Cited by 4 publications
(3 citation statements)
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References 46 publications
(43 reference statements)
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“…Samples for NMR spectra to be gathered under elevated pressure conditions were inserted into the specialised high-pressure NMR cell (Daedalus Innovations) and spectra obtained using 1360 scans. This cell comprised of a ceramic zirconia NMR tube attached to a titanium manifold and homeassembled pressurisation system [26] with low-viscosity paraffin oil as the pressurising medium.…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Samples for NMR spectra to be gathered under elevated pressure conditions were inserted into the specialised high-pressure NMR cell (Daedalus Innovations) and spectra obtained using 1360 scans. This cell comprised of a ceramic zirconia NMR tube attached to a titanium manifold and homeassembled pressurisation system [26] with low-viscosity paraffin oil as the pressurising medium.…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The importance of this process stems from the fact that it serves as the ‘mother engine’ responsible for the origin of life as per some authors (Russell et al , 2013). In contrast, if the rock–ocean interface is acidic or characterized by a higher temperature, the rate of serpentinization will be significantly altered; furthermore, RNA nucleobases and amino acids have short half-lives at high temperatures and pressures (Levy and Miller, 1998; Aubrey et al , 2009; Kua and Bada, 2011; Lepper et al , 2018). In this regard, we note that it remains controversial as to whether the first lifeforms on the Earth were thermophilic (Akanuma et al , 2013; Weiss et al , 2016) or mesophilic (Miller and Lazcano, 1995; Bada and Lazcano, 2002; Cantine and Fournier, 2018).…”
Section: Energy Sources and Paths For Abiogenesismentioning
confidence: 99%
“…As earlier high-temperature, high-pressure lab experiments suggested, this NO 2 -(just like NO 3 -) should also be reduced to NH 4 + . Along the same line of reasoning, DON is also expected to be deaminated releasing NH 4 + at high temperature as suggested by several studies done on heat-induced deamination of amino acids (e.g., Lewis et al, 2016;Cleaves et al, 2018;Lepper et al, 2018).…”
Section: Sources and Sinks For Nh 4 + At Ventsmentioning
confidence: 76%