Clay catalyzed RNA synthesis under Martian conditions: Application for Mars return samples

Joshi, P. C.; Dubey, K. C.; Aldersley, Michael F.; Sausville, Meaghen

doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2015.04.044

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Compounds are well-preserved in the interlayer spaces of certain phyllosilicate clay minerals because the charged surface area of these minerals sorbs and retains organic matter [ 102 , 103 ] and can be extremely resistant to desorption [ 104 ], making the separation of organics and clays rather difficult. Interlayer binding acts as a retention mechanism for the sorption of organic compounds [ 105 ], including amino acids onto phyllosilicates [ 106 ], which may shelter organic matter from oxidation [ 98 ] and radiation exposure [ 14 , 59 ].…”

Section: Factors Influencing Organic Matter Preservation In Paleosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic Matter Preservation in Ancient Soils of Earth and Mars

Broz

2020

Life

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The emerging field of astropedology is the study of ancient soils on Earth and other planetary bodies. Examination of the complex factors that control the preservation of organic matter and other biosignatures in ancient soils is a high priority for current and future missions to Mars. Though previously defined by biological activity, an updated definition of soil as planetary surfaces altered in place by biological, chemical or physical processes was adopted in 2017 by the Soil Science Society of America in response to mounting evidence of pedogenic-like features on Mars. Ancient (4.1–3.7 billion year old [Byr]) phyllosilicate-rich surface environments on Mars show evidence of sustained subaerial weathering of sediments with liquid water at circumneutral pH, which is a soil-forming process. The accumulation of buried, fossilized soils, or paleosols, has been widely observed on Earth, and recent investigations suggest paleosol-like features may be widespread across the surface of Mars. However, the complex array of preservation and degradation factors controlling the fate of biosignatures in paleosols remains unexplored. This paper identifies the dominant factors contributing to the preservation and degradation of organic carbon in paleosols through the geological record on Earth, and offers suggestions for prioritizing locations for in situ biosignature detection and Mars Sample Return across a diverse array of potential paleosols and paleoenvironments of early Mars. A compilation of previously published data and original research spanning a diverse suite of paleosols from the Pleistocene (1 Myr) to the Archean (3.7 Byr) show that redox state is the predominant control for the organic matter content of paleosols. Most notably, the chemically reduced surface horizons (layers) of Archean (2.3 Byr) paleosols have organic matter concentrations ranging from 0.014–0.25%. However, clay mineralogy, amorphous phase abundance, diagenetic alteration and sulfur content are all significant factors that influence the preservation of organic carbon. The surface layers of paleosols that formed under chemically reducing conditions with high amounts of iron/magnesium smectites and amorphous colloids should be considered high priority locations for biosignature investigation within subaerial paleoenvironments on Mars.

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Section: Factors Influencing Organic Matter Preservation In Paleosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic Matter Preservation in Ancient Soils of Earth and Mars

Broz

2020

Life

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“…(ii) The relevant pre-biological chemistry takes place mainly through surface-catalysed reactions at the pore walls. There is broad acceptance that sorption and catalysis by mineral surfaces are likely to have played an essential role in facilitating the polymerization reactions that led to abiogenesis on Earth [8,[30][31][32][33][34][35]. Many experimental studies report the equilibrium adsorption isotherms for biologically relevant molecules on solid surfaces (for example, [36][37][38] and the useful review in [32]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toy trains, loaded dice and the origin of life: dimerization on mineral surfaces under periodic drive with Gaussian inputs

Ball

Brindley

2017

R. Soc. open sci.

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In a major extension of previous work, we model the putative hydrothermal rock pore setting for the origin of life on Earth as a series of coupled continuous flow units (the toy train). Perfusing through this train are reactants that set up thermochemical and pH oscillations, and an activated nucleotide that produces monomer and dimer monophosphates. The dynamical equations that model this system are thermally self-consistent. In an innovative step that breaks some new ground, we build stochasticity of the inputs into the model. The computational results infer various constraints and conditions on, and insights into, chemical evolution and the origin of life and its physical setting: long, interconnected porous structures with longitudinal non-uniformity would have been favourable, and the ubiquitous pH dependences of biology may have been established in the prebiotic era. We demonstrate the important role of Gaussian fluctuations of the inputs in driving polymerization, evolution and diversification. In particular, we find that the probability distribution of the resulting output fluctuations is left-skewed and right-weighted (the loaded dice), which could favour chemical evolution towards a living RNA world. We tentatively name this distribution ‘Goldilocks’. These results also vindicate the general approach of constructing and running a simple model to learn important new information about a complex system.

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“…Montmorillonite clay is a phyllosilicate that plausibly was present on early Earth and has been found on Mars (Cuadros and Michalski 2013; Joshi et al 2015). We first performed reactions of individual, activated nucleotides with one or more unactivated nucleotides.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nucleotide Selectivity in Abiotic RNA Polymerization Reactions

Coari

Martin

Jain

et al. 2017

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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In order to establish an RNA world on early Earth, the nucleotides must form polymers through chemical rather than biochemical reactions. The polymerization products must be long enough to perform catalytic functions, including self-replication, and to preserve genetic information. These functions depend not only on the length of the polymers, but also on their sequences. To date, studies of abiotic RNA polymerization generally have focused on routes to polymerization of a single nucleotide and lengths of the homopolymer products. Less work has been done the selectivity of the reaction toward incorporation of some nucleotides over others in nucleotide mixtures. Such information is an essential step toward understanding the chemical evolution of RNA. To address this question, in the present work RNA polymerization reactions were performed in the presence of montmorillonite clay catalyst. The nucleotides included the monophosphates of adenosine, cytosine, guanosine, uridine and inosine. Experiments included reactions of mixtures of an imidazole-activated nucleotide (ImpX) with one or more unactivated nucleotides (XMP), of two or more ImpX, and of XMP that were activated in situ in the polymerization reaction itself. The reaction products were analyzed using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) to identify the lengths and nucleotide compositions of the polymerization products. The results show that the extent of polymerization, the degree of heteropolymerization vs. homopolymerization, and the composition of the polymeric products all vary among the different nucleotides and depend upon which nucleotides and how many different nucleotides are present in the mixture.

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Clay catalyzed RNA synthesis under Martian conditions: Application for Mars return samples

Cited by 12 publications

References 26 publications

Organic Matter Preservation in Ancient Soils of Earth and Mars

Organic Matter Preservation in Ancient Soils of Earth and Mars

Toy trains, loaded dice and the origin of life: dimerization on mineral surfaces under periodic drive with Gaussian inputs

Nucleotide Selectivity in Abiotic RNA Polymerization Reactions

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