Synthesis of Complex Organic Compounds from Simple Precursors: Formation of Amino-Acids, Amino-Acid Polymers, Fatty Acids and Purines from Ammonium Cyanide

Lowe, Charles U.; Rees, M. W.; Markham, Roy

doi:10.1038/199219a0

Cited by 199 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Urea, for one, is considered a key prebiotic compound (Horneck & BaumstarkKhan 2012). An endogeneous formation (gas phase as well as liquid phase) of urea is discussed extensively and multiple pathways to form urea exist (Lowe et al 1963;Lohrmann 1972;Ferris et al 1974;Hubbard et al 1975;Sakurai & Yanagawa 1984;Miller 1993;Shapiro 1999). However, a purely endogeneous formation is under debate, due to the seemingly low concentration of cyanates in the oceans of early Earth (Miller 1993) and a limited stability of cyanates at pH values lower than six; at this pH cyanates can hydrolyze to hydrogen cyanide at timescales of geological range (Miller & Orgel 1974).…”

Section: Astrophysical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Formation of Amide Polymers via Carbonyl–amino Group Linkages in Energetically Processed Ices of Astrophysical Relevance

Förstel

Maksyutenko

Jones

et al. 2016

ApJ

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We report on the formation of organic amide polymers via carbonyl-amino group linkages in carbon monoxide and ammonia bearing energetically processed ices of astrophysical relevance. The first group comprises molecules with one carboxyl group and an increasing number of amine moieties starting with formamide (45 u), urea (60 u), and hydrazine carboxamide (75 u). The second group consists of species with two carboxyl (58 u) and up to three amine groups (73 u, 88 u, and 103 u). The formation and polymerization of these linkages from simple inorganic molecules via formamide und urea toward amide polymers is discussed in an astrophysical and astrobiological context. Our results show that long chain molecules, which are closely related to polypeptides, easily form by energetically processing simple, inorganic ices at very low temperatures and can be released into the gas phase by sublimation of the ices in star-forming regions. Our experimental results were obtained by employing reflectron time-of-flight mass spectroscopy, coupled with soft, single photon vacuum ultraviolet photoionization; they are complemented by theoretical calculations.

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Section: Astrophysical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Formation of Amide Polymers via Carbonyl–amino Group Linkages in Energetically Processed Ices of Astrophysical Relevance

Förstel

Maksyutenko

Jones

et al. 2016

ApJ

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“…Glycine has been detected as a product of the photolysis of CO, H 2 0, NH3 at 10 K in a reaction designed to simulate synthesis in the interstellar medium (Briggs et al, 1991). The self condensation of HCN in aqueous solution yields oligomeric products which release amino acids upon hydrolysis with 1 N HCl or at pH 8.5 (Or6 and Kamat, 1961;Lowe et al, 1963;. These oligomers are not polypeptides since the amino acids formed constitute a small percent of the starting oligomers .…”

Section: Amino Acids and Aminonitrilesmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…A recent review of the prebiotic formation of urea is given by Navarro-Gonzalez et al (1989). Guanidine is formed by the thermal (Lowe et al, 1963;Labadie et al, 1968) and photochemical reactions (Lohrmann, 1972) of NH 4 CN and by the reaction of cyanamide with NH3 (Blair and Braham, 1924 (Smolin and Rapoport, 1959a). The yield increases as the temperature is raised to 279°C (Smolin and Rapoport, 1959a;Okazaki et al, 1974).…”

Section: Urea and Guanidinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yields of amino acids were in the range 0.002 to 0.007 percent of the initial formaldehyde, and a major product of these reactions was hexamethylenetetramine. A wider spectrum of products was obtained by Lowe et al (1963) who heated concentrated aqueous solutions of hydrocyanic acid, ammonia and oxalic acid to 90·C for 18 hours. More than ten amino acids were identified and evidence of several others was also found.…”

Section: Thermal Organic Synthesis From Other Organic Compoundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Marine Hydrothermal Systems and the Origin of Life

Holm¹

1992

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“…H 2 C=O in aqueous solution gives rise to 4 to 7 carbon sugars, including ribose, as well as branched polysaccharides. HC ≡ N gives rise to heterocyclic purine and pyrimidine nucleic acid bases, and in addition several amino acids, polypeptides, porphyrins, and many other types of biomolecule (Lowe et al, 1963;Calvin, 1969;Mizutani et al 1975). A similar array of products arises from hybrids such as cyanogen N ≡ C-C ≡ N (Schwartz et al 1975) and cyanoacetaldehyde N ≡ C-CH 2 -H 2 C=O.…”

Section: Structural Dynamics Of the Core Polymerization Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cosmic Symmetry-breaking, Bifurcation, Fractality and Biogenesis

King¹

2007

Neuroquantology

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This paper explores the non-linear quantum foundations of biogenesis in interactive bifurcations between the properties of the elements, sourced in the transitions induced by cosmic symmetry-breaking. The key interactions forming the biogenic pathway are modeled in terms of interactive quantum bifurcations explaining why the bioelements play the interactive role they do and why central biomolecules are cosmologically abundant products of the gas clouds forming young stars. RNA and related nucleotide molecules gain a plausible cosmic status, along with major features of the genetic code, and key features of metabolism, including ion and electron transport, the citric acid cycle and glycolysis.Key Words: cosmology, symmetry-breaking, molecular evolution, chaos, bifurcation, complex system, fractal, biogenesis, astrobiology I IntroductionThe thesis of this paper is that biological structures such as tissues, and organisms are cosmological structures, culminating the interactive phase of symmetry-breaking, as fundamental as stars and galaxies to the cosmic design. This process is described in detail in this paper as a fundamental manifestation of nonlinear quantum science, elaborating the fractal nature of fundamental force interaction, inevitable from the twisted nature of the forces, as they have emerged in our Universe. Symmetry-breaking as elucidated firstly in terms of the weak and electromagnetic forces, fig 5(a) results from evolution of the Universe from a symmetrical state to one in which the Higgs field has become polarized into a state of lower energy, similar to that of a ferromagnetic substance. It is the transition of this underlying parameter that is responsible for the bifurcations we shall consider.Although life is of fragile insignificance among the immensity of cosmic energies, its tiny entropy-reducing photosynthetic energy budget and fragile chemical bonds overwhelmed on the cosmic scale, it is nevertheless the interactive consummation of all the forces of nature acting together in sequence. Biological evolution is a stochastic 2 process combining random mutation and selective advantage, many of whose manifestations are opportunistic, but others the inevitable result of selective forces and environmental bifurcations. Although biological structures are genetically coded in a vast variety of ways by specific nucleic acid sequences, many features of life, 1 Mathematics Department, University of Auckland, New Zealand, E-mail: c.king@auckland.ac.nz 2 Stochastic -a process mediated partly by random factors, such as the drunkard's walk of Brownian motion.

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Synthesis of Complex Organic Compounds from Simple Precursors: Formation of Amino-Acids, Amino-Acid Polymers, Fatty Acids and Purines from Ammonium Cyanide

Cited by 199 publications

References 19 publications

On the Formation of Amide Polymers via Carbonyl–amino Group Linkages in Energetically Processed Ices of Astrophysical Relevance

On the Formation of Amide Polymers via Carbonyl–amino Group Linkages in Energetically Processed Ices of Astrophysical Relevance

Marine Hydrothermal Systems and the Origin of Life

Cosmic Symmetry-breaking, Bifurcation, Fractality and Biogenesis

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