Abiotic Formation of Bioorganic Compounds in Space. Preliminary Experiments on Ground and Future Exobiology Experiments in Space.

Kobayashi, Kensei; Kaneko, Takeo; Hashimoto, Hirofumi; Kouchi, Akira; Saito, Takeshi; Yamashita, Masamichi

doi:10.2187/bss.12.102

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The most straightforward indications, conceivably, come from experiments on abiogenic synthesis of organic molecules under supposedly realistic prehistoric atmosphere conditions and external energy sources, a research direction pioneered by Miller and Urey in the 1950s [14-16]. The experiments of Miller and similar experiments subsequently performed by other groups under various models of the ancient atmosphere and using different energy sources, such as spark discharges, ultraviolet light, or irradiation with high energy charged particles [17-19] yielded up to 10 standard amino acids (reviewed in [20]). In general, the results of these experiments are remarkably coherent and lead to the same list of standard amino acids that can be produced under emulated primordial conditions:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exceptional error minimization in putative primordial genetic codes

Novozhilov

Koonin

2009

Biology Direct

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BackgroundThe standard genetic code is redundant and has a highly non-random structure. Codons for the same amino acids typically differ only by the nucleotide in the third position, whereas similar amino acids are encoded, mostly, by codon series that differ by a single base substitution in the third or the first position. As a result, the code is highly albeit not optimally robust to errors of translation, a property that has been interpreted either as a product of selection directed at the minimization of errors or as a non-adaptive by-product of evolution of the code driven by other forces.ResultsWe investigated the error-minimization properties of putative primordial codes that consisted of 16 supercodons, with the third base being completely redundant, using a previously derived cost function and the error minimization percentage as the measure of a code's robustness to mistranslation. It is shown that, when the 16-supercodon table is populated with 10 putative primordial amino acids, inferred from the results of abiotic synthesis experiments and other evidence independent of the code's evolution, and with minimal assumptions used to assign the remaining supercodons, the resulting 2-letter codes are nearly optimal in terms of the error minimization level.ConclusionThe results of the computational experiments with putative primordial genetic codes that contained only two meaningful letters in all codons and encoded 10 to 16 amino acids indicate that such codes are likely to have been nearly optimal with respect to the minimization of translation errors. This near-optimality could be the outcome of extensive early selection during the co-evolution of the code with the primordial, error-prone translation system, or a result of a unique, accidental event. Under this hypothesis, the subsequent expansion of the code resulted in a decrease of the error minimization level that became sustainable owing to the evolution of a high-fidelity translation system.ReviewersThis article was reviewed by Paul Higgs (nominated by Arcady Mushegian), Rob Knight, and Sandor Pongor. For the complete reports, go to the Reviewers' Reports section.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exceptional error minimization in putative primordial genetic codes

Novozhilov

Koonin

2009

Biology Direct

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“…³ËÐÕÇÊ ÐÇÍÑÕÑÓÞØ ÒÑÎËÏÇÓÑÄ, ÐÂÒÓËÏÇÓ, ÔÂØÂÓÑÄ, ÒÖÕÇÏ ÒÑÎËÏÇÓËÊÂÙËË ×ÑÓÏÂÎßAEÇ-ÅËAEÂ ÄÑÊÏÑÉÇÐ AEÂÉÇ Ä ÍÑÔÏËÚÇÔÍÑÏ ÒÓÑÔÕÓÂÐÔÕÄÇ [16,17].°AE ÐÂÍÑ Ä àÕËØ ÖÔÎÑÄËâØ ÔÑÑÕÐÑÛÇÐËÇ ÔÍÑÓÑÔÕÇÌ ÑÃÓÂÊÑÄÂÐËâ Ë ÓÂÔÒÂAEÂ ÃËÑÎÑÅËÚÇÔÍË ÄÂÉÐÞØ ÄÇÜÇÔÕÄ ÕÂÍÑÄÑ, ÚÕÑ ÍÑÐÙÇÐÕÓÂÙËâ ËØ Ä ÒÇÓÄËÚÐÑÏ ÑÍÇÂÐÇ ÑÚÇÐß ÏÂÎÂ. ªÐÞÏË ÔÎÑÄÂÏË, ÇÔÎË ÃÞ ÄÇÜÇÔÕÄÂ ÃÞÎË ÓÂÔÒÓÇAEÇ-ÎÇÐÞ Ä ÒÓÑÔÕÓÂÐÔÕÄÇ ÓÂÄÐÑÏÇÓÐÑ, ÕÑ AEÂÎßÐÇÌÛÂâ ËØ ÒÑÎËÏÇÓËÊÂÙËâ ÃÞÎÂ ÃÞ ÒÓÂÍÕËÚÇÔÍË ÐÇÄÑÊÏÑÉÐÑÌ.…”

Section: ±óñãîçïâ äñêðëíðñäçðëâ éëêðëunclassified

The origin of life and thinking from the viewpoint of modern physics

Chernavskii¹

2000

Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk

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“…Those compounds have an interstellar origin. Extensive studies (Briggs, et al 1992, Kobayashi, et al 1998 have been conducted on the ground to simulate the formation of bioorganic compounds under the interstellar medium conditions. Biogenic species, such as amino acids, were detected in the irradiated products of ice mixtures of CO, CH 4 , CH 3 OH, NH 3 and H 2 O.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Conceptual Design for Cosmo-biology Experiments in Earth's Orbit.

et al. 1998

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A conceptual design was developed for a cosmo-biology experiment. It is intended to expose simulated interstellar ice materials deposited on dust grains to the space environment. The experimental system consists of a cryogenic system to keep solidified gas sample, and an optical device to select and amplify the ultraviolet part of the solar light for irradiation. By this approach, the long lasting chemical evolution of icy species could be examined in a much shorter time of exposure by amplification of light intensity. The removal of light at longer wavelength, which is ineffective to induce photochemical reactions, reduces the heat load to the cryogenic system that holds solidified reactants including CO as a constituent species of interstellar materials. Other major hardware components were also defined in order to achieve the scientific objectives of this experiment. Those are a cold trap maintained at liquid nitrogen temperature to prevent the contamination of the sample during the exposure, a mechanism to exchange multiple samples, and a system to perform bake-out of the sample exposure chamber. This experiment system is proposed as a candidate payload implemented on the exposed facility of Japanese Experiment Module on International Space Station.

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Abiotic Formation of Bioorganic Compounds in Space. Preliminary Experiments on Ground and Future Exobiology Experiments in Space.

Cited by 10 publications

References 13 publications

Exceptional error minimization in putative primordial genetic codes

Exceptional error minimization in putative primordial genetic codes

The origin of life and thinking from the viewpoint of modern physics

A Conceptual Design for Cosmo-biology Experiments in Earth's Orbit.

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