Abiotic synthesis of amino acids under hydrothermal conditions and the origin of life: A perpetual phenomenon?

Hennet, Remy J.-C.; Holm, Nils G.; Engel, Michael H.

doi:10.1007/bf01140180

Cited by 214 publications

(139 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Apart from the biotic origin of DFAA, several experimental studies have demonstrated that the conditions at hydrothermal vent sites may be favourable for the abiotic synthesis of amino acids (e.g., Hennet et al, 1992;Marshall, 1994;Simoneit et al, 2007). However, recent experiments by Aubrey et al (2009) suggest that lower temperatures are more favourable than high temperatures for abiotic synthesis.…”

Section: Potential Sources Of Aas In the Hydrothermal Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrations and distributions of dissolved amino acids in fluids from Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal vents

et al. 2010

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Section: Potential Sources Of Aas In the Hydrothermal Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrations and distributions of dissolved amino acids in fluids from Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal vents

et al. 2010

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“…There is a vast literature regarding plausible models for prebiotic syntheses of sugars (formol condensation (Quayle & Ferenci 1978;Mü ller et al 1990)), bases (cyanide condensation (Oró & Kimball 1962;Sanchez et al 1967)), amino acids (Hennet et al 1992;Marshall 1994) and other molecules (Sutherland & Whitfield 1997), and a vast literature on the broad catalytic capabilities of RNA (Bartel & Unrau 1999;Gesteland et al 1999), none of which we can deal with adequately here. We surmise that it is conceivable and not implausible that using such conceptual tools one could get to something like an RNA-world (Gilbert 1986), provided that its monomeric building blocks are steadily replenished and remain in sufficient concentrations, conditions that structured FeS precipitates could fulfil because of their sustained energy input though the natural redox gradient and by their compartmentalizing, reactant-retaining nature (Russell & Hall 1997).…”

Section: On the Origin Of Life And Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the origins of cells: a hypothesis for the evolutionary transitions from abiotic geochemistry to chemoautotrophic prokaryotes, and from prokaryotes to nucleated cells

Martin

Russell

2003

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

704

613

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All life is organized as cells. Physical compartmentation from the environment and self-organization of self-contained redox reactions are the most conserved attributes of living things, hence inorganic matter with such attributes would be life's most likely forebear. We propose that life evolved in structured iron monosulphide precipitates in a seepage site hydrothermal mound at a redox, pH and temperature gradient between sulphide-rich hydrothermal fluid and iron(II)-containing waters of the Hadean ocean floor. The naturally arising, three-dimensional compartmentation observed within fossilized seepage-site metal sulphide precipitates indicates that these inorganic compartments were the precursors of cell walls and membranes found in free-living prokaryotes. The known capability of FeS and NiS to catalyse the synthesis of the acetyl-methylsulphide from carbon monoxide and methylsulphide, constituents of hydrothermal fluid, indicates that pre-biotic syntheses occurred at the inner surfaces of these metal-sulphide-walled compartments, which furthermore restrained reacted products from diffusion into the ocean, providing sufficient concentrations of reactants to forge the transition from geochemistry to biochemistry. The chemistry of what is known as the RNA-world could have taken place within these naturally forming, catalyticwalled compartments to give rise to replicating systems. Sufficient concentrations of precursors to support replication would have been synthesized in situ geochemically and biogeochemically, with FeS (and NiS) centres playing the central catalytic role. The universal ancestor we infer was not a free-living cell, but rather was confined to the naturally chemiosmotic, FeS compartments within which the synthesis of its constituents occurred. The first free-living cells are suggested to have been eubacterial and archaebacterial chemoautotrophs that emerged more than 3.8 Gyr ago from their inorganic confines. We propose that the emergence of these prokaryotic lineages from inorganic confines occurred independently, facilitated by the independent origins of membrane-lipid biosynthesis: isoprenoid ether membranes in the archaebacterial and fatty acid ester membranes in the eubacterial lineage. The eukaryotes, all of which are ancestrally heterotrophs and possess eubacterial lipids, are suggested to have arisen ca. 2 Gyr ago through symbiosis involving an autotrophic archaebacterial host and a heterotrophic eubacterial symbiont, the common ancestor of mitochondria and hydrogenosomes. The attributes shared by all prokaryotes are viewed as inheritances from their confined universal ancestor. The attributes that distinguish eubacteria and archaebacteria, yet are uniform within the groups, are viewed as relics of their phase of differentiation after divergence from the non-free-living universal ancestor and before the origin of the free-living chemoautotrophic lifestyle. The attributes shared by eukaryotes with eubacteria and archaebacteria, respectively, are viewed as inheritances via symbiosis. The ...

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“…More complex organic molecules were minor by-products of the reaction, by-products that were to optimize acetate production. Of particular significance was the amino acetic acid glycine ( + H 3 N.CH 2 .COO − ), produced in hydrothermal experiments by Hennet et al (1992). Once glycine appeared in the sulfide compartments, the redox and pH gradients came into effect (Russell andHall, 1997, 2002).…”

Section: The Hydrothermal Moundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geodynamic and metabolic cycles in the Hadean

2005

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Abstract. High-degree melting of hot dry Hadean mantle at ocean ridges and plumes resulted in a crust about 30 km thick, overlain in places by extensive and thick mafic volcanic plateaus. Continental crust, by contrast, was relatively thin and mostly submarine. At constructive and destructive plate boundaries, and above the many mantle plumes, acidic hydrothermal springs at ∼400 • C contributed Fe and other transition elements as well as P and H 2 to the deep ocean made acidulous by dissolved CO 2 and minor HCl derived from volcanoes. Away from ocean ridges, submarine hydrothermal fluids were cool (≤100 • C), alkaline (pH ∼10), highly reduced and also H 2 -rich. Reaction of solvents in this fluid with those in ocean water was catalyzed in a hydrothermal mound, a natural self-restoring flow reactor and fractionation column developed above the alkaline spring. The mound consisted of brucite, Mg-rich clays, ephemeral carbonates, Fe-Ni sulfide and green rust. Acetate and glycine were the main products, some of which were eluted to the ocean. The rest, along with other organic byproducts were retained and concentrated within Fe-Ni sulfide compartments. These compartments, comprising the natural hydrothermal reactor, consisted partly of greigite (Fe 5 NiS 8 ). It was from reactions between organic modules confined within these inorganic compartments that the first prokaryotic organism evolved. These acetogenic precursors to the bacteria diversified and migrated down the mound and into the ocean floor to inaugurate the "deep biosphere". Once there they were protected from cataclysmic heating events caused by large meteoritic impacts. Geodynamic forces led to the eventual obduction of the deep biosphere into the photic zone where, initially protected by a thin veneer of sediment, the use of solar energy was mastered and photosynthesis emerged. The further evolution to oxygenic photosynthesis was effected as catalytic [Mn,Ca] -bearing molecules that otherwise wouldCorrespondence to: N. T. Arndt (arndt@ujf-grenoble.fr) have been interred in minerals such as ranciéite and hollandite in shallow marine manganiferous sediments, were sequestered and invaginated within the cyanobacterial precursor where, energized by light, they could oxidize water. Thus, a chemical sedimentary environment was required both for the emergence of chemosynthesis and of oxygenic photosynthesis, the two innovations that did most to change the nature of our planet.

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Abiotic synthesis of amino acids under hydrothermal conditions and the origin of life: A perpetual phenomenon?

Cited by 214 publications

References 23 publications

Concentrations and distributions of dissolved amino acids in fluids from Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal vents

Concentrations and distributions of dissolved amino acids in fluids from Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal vents

On the origins of cells: a hypothesis for the evolutionary transitions from abiotic geochemistry to chemoautotrophic prokaryotes, and from prokaryotes to nucleated cells

Geodynamic and metabolic cycles in the Hadean

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