Biomolecules in hydrothermal systems: Calculation of the standard molal thermodynamic properties of nucleic-acid bases, nucleosides, and nucleotides at elevated temperatures and pressures

LaRowe, Douglas E.; Helgeson, Harold C.

doi:10.1016/j.gca.2006.04.010

Cited by 55 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 130 publications

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“…Values of DG 0 r are calculated as a function of temperature and pressure using the revised-HKF equations of state (Helgeson et al, 1981;Tanger and Helgeson, 1988;Shock et al, 1992), the SUPCRT92 software package and thermodynamic data taken from Shock and Helgeson (1988); Shock et al (1989); Shock and Helgeson (1990);Shock (1995); Sverjensky et al (1997); Amend and Helgeson (1997a, b); Amend and Plyasunov (2001); Schulte et al (2001); Dick et al (2006); LaRowe and Helgeson (2006) and LaRowe and Dick (2012). Values of Q r are calculated using…”

Section: Computational Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The energetics of anabolism in natural settings

LaRowe

Amend

2016

The ISME Journal

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The environmental conditions that describe an ecosystem define the amount of energy available to the resident organisms and the amount of energy required to build biomass. Here, we quantify the amount of energy required to make biomass as a function of temperature, pressure, redox state, the sources of C, N and S, cell mass and the time that an organism requires to double or replace its biomass. Specifically, these energetics are calculated from 0 to 125°C, 0.1 to 500 MPa and − 0.38 to +0.86 V using CO 2 , acetate or CH 4 for C, NO 3 À or NH 4 þ for N and SO 4 2À or HS − for S. The amounts of energy associated with synthesizing the biomolecules that make up a cell, which varies over 39 kJ (g cell), are then used to compute energy-based yield coefficients for a vast range of environmental conditions. Taken together, environmental variables and the range of cell sizes leads to a~4 orders of magnitude difference between the number of microbial cells that can be made from a Joule of Gibbs energy under the most (5.06 × 10 11 cells J − 1) and least (5.21 × 10 7 cells J − 1 ) ideal conditions. When doubling/replacement time is taken into account, the range of anabolism energies can expand even further.

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Section: Computational Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The energetics of anabolism in natural settings

LaRowe

Amend

2016

The ISME Journal

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“…for crystalline compounds (Helgeson et al, 1998;LaRowe and Helgeson, 2006;LaRowe and Dick, 2012). In Eqs.…”

Section: Thermodynamic Calculations Of Reactions Of Amino Acids and Nmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymerization of Building Blocks of Life on Europa and Other Icy Moons

Kimura

Kitadai

2015

Astrobiology

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The outer Solar System may provide a potential habitat for extraterrestrial life. Remote sensing data from the Galileo spacecraft suggest that the jovian icy moons-Europa, Ganymede, and possibly Callisto-may harbor liquid water oceans underneath their icy crusts. Although compositional information required for the discussion of habitability is limited because of significantly restricted observation data, organic molecules are ubiquitous in the Universe. Recently, in situ spacecraft measurements and experiments suggest that amino acids can be formed abiotically on interstellar ices and comets. These amino acids could be continuously delivered by meteorite or comet impacts to icy moons. Here, we show that polymerization of organic monomers, in particular amino acids and nucleotides, could proceed spontaneously in the cold environment of icy moons, in particular the jovian icy moon Europa as a typical example, based on thermodynamic calculations, though kinetics of formation are not addressed. Observed surface temperature on Europa is 120 and 80 K in the equatorial region and polar region, respectively. At such low temperatures, Gibbs energies of polymerization become negative, and the estimated thermal structure of the icy crust should contain a shallow region (i.e., at a depth of only a few kilometers) favorable for polymerization. Investigation of the possibility of organic monomer polymerization on icy moons could provide good constraints on the origin and early evolution of extraterrestrial life.

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“…The thermodynamic properties of ribose and deoxyribose required to evaluate Eq. (15) were taken from LaRowe and Helgeson (2006a). The corresponding properties of the functional groups, N ½R i , for these hydroxylated amino acids were calculated as described above, using Eq.…”

Section: Compound or [Group]mentioning

confidence: 99%