Influence of Imidazole and Hydrocyanic Acid Derivatives on the ‘Possible Prebiotic’ polyphosphate induced peptide synthesis in aqueous solution

Rabinowitz, J.; Hampai, A.

doi:10.1002/hlca.19780610529

Cited by 10 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Small amounts of condensed phosphates are emitted in volcanic fumaroles (Yamagata et al 1991), and heating orthophosphate at relatively low temperatures in the presence of ammonia results in a high yield of condensed phosphates (Osterberg and Orgel 1972). Trimetaphosphate (TMP) has been shown to be an active phosphorylating agent for various molecules including amino acids and nucleosides (Schwartz 1969;Rabinowitz and Hampai 1978;Yamagata et al 1991). However, it has also been suggested that condensed phosphates are not likely to be prebiotically abundant materials (Keefe and Miller 1995).…”

Section: Nucleosides Nucleotidesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Prebiotic Chemistry: What We Know, What We Don't

Cleaves

2012

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How life on Earth began remains an unexplained scientific problem. This problem is nuanced in its practical details and the way attempted explanations feedback with questions and developments in other areas of science, including astronomy, biology, and planetary science. Prebiotic chemistry attempts to address this issue theoretically, experimentally, and observationally. The ease of formation of bioorganic compounds under plausible prebiotic conditions suggests that these molecules were present in the primitive terrestrial environment. In addition to synthesis in the Earth's primordial atmosphere and oceans, it is likely that the infall of comets, meteorites, and interplanetary dust particles, as well as submarine hydrothermal vent synthesis, may have contributed to prebiotic organic evolution. The primordial organic soup may have been quite complex, but it did not likely include all of the compounds found in modern organisms. Regardless of their origin, organic compounds would need to be concentrated and complexified by environmental mechanisms. While this review is by no means exhaustive, many of the issues central to the state of the art of prebiotic chemistry are reviewed here.

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Section: Nucleosides Nucleotidesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Prebiotic Chemistry: What We Know, What We Don't

Cleaves

2012

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“…Although polyphosphates are not especially good phosphorylating reagents under prebiotic conditions, they tend to degrade, especially in the presence of divalent cations at high temperatures, to cyclic phosphates such as trimetaphosphate. Trimetaphosphate has been shown to be a phosphorylating agent for various prebiological molecules, including amino acids and nucleosides (Schwartz, 1969;Rabinowitz and Hampai, 1978). Another intriguing possibility is that reactive phosphates were delivered extraterrestrially in the form of phosphide minerals (Pasek and Lauretta, 2005).…”

Section: Phosphatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimentally Tracing the Key Steps in the Origin of Life: The Aromatic World

et al. 2006

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Life is generally believed to emerge on Earth, to be at least functionally similar to life as we know it today, and to be much simpler than modern life. Although minimal life is notoriously difficult to define, a molecular system can be considered alive if it turns resources into building blocks, replicates, and evolves. Primitive life may have consisted of a compartmentalized genetic system coupled with an energy-harvesting mechanism. How prebiotic building blocks self-assemble and transform themselves into a minimal living system can be broken into two questions: (1) How can prebiotic building blocks form containers, metabolic networks, and informational polymers? (2) How can these three components cooperatively organize to form a protocell that satisfies the minimal requirements for a living system? The functional integration of these components is a difficult puzzle that requires cooperation among all the aspects of protocell assembly: starting material, reaction mechanisms, thermodynamics, and the integration of the inheritance, metabolism, and container functionalities. Protocells may have been self-assembled from components different from those used in modern biochemistry. We propose that assemblies based on aromatic hydrocarbons may have been the most abundant flexible and stable organic materials on the primitive Earth and discuss their possible integration into a minimal life form. In this paper we attempt to combine current knowledge of the composition of prebiotic organic material of extraterrestrial and terrestrial origin, and put these in the context of possible prebiotic scenarios. We also describe laboratory experiments that might help clarify the transition from nonliving to living matter using aromatic material. This paper presents an interdisciplinary approach to interface state of the art knowledge in astrochemistry, prebiotic chemistry, and artificial life research.

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