Adsorption of amino acids and nucleic acid bases onto minerals: a few suggestions for prebiotic chemistry experiments

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 229-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimas A.M. Zaia
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Prebiotic Chemistry ◽  
Synthesis Methods ◽  
Nucleic Acid Bases ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Protein Amino Acids ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Living Organisms

AbstractAmino acids and nucleic acid bases are very important for the living organisms. Thus, their protection from decomposition, selection, pre-concentration and formation of biopolymers are important issues for understanding the origin of life on the Earth. Minerals could have played all of these roles. This paper discusses several aspects involving the adsorption of amino acids and nucleic acid bases onto minerals under conditions that could have been found on the prebiotic Earth; in particular, we recommend the use of minerals, amino acids, nucleic acid bases and seawater ions in prebiotic chemistry experiments. Several experiments involving amino acids, nucleic acid bases, minerals and seawater ions are also suggested, including: (a) using well-characterized minerals and the standardization of the mineral synthesis methods; (b) using primary chondrite minerals (olivine, pyroxene, etc.) and clays modified with metals (Cu, Fe, Ni, Mo, Zn, etc.); (c) determination of the possible products of decomposition due to interactions of amino acids and nucleic acid bases with minerals; (d) using minerals with more organophilic characteristics; (e) using seawaters with different concentrations of ions (i.e. Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42− and Cl−); (f) using non-protein amino acids (AIB, α-ABA, β-ABA, γ-ABA and β-Ala and g) using nucleic acid bases other than adenine, thymine, uracil and cytosine. These experiments could be useful to clarify the role played by minerals in the origin of life on the Earth.

scholarly journals Differential adsorption of nucleic acid bases: Relevance to the origin of life

2001 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 820-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Sowerby ◽  
C. A. Cohn ◽  
W. M. Heckl ◽  
N. G. Holm
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Nucleic Acid Bases ◽  
The Origin Of Life

scholarly journals Scum of the Earth: A Hypothesis for Prebiotic Multi-Compartmentalised Environments

Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 976
Author(s):  
Craig Robert Walton ◽  
Oliver Shorttle
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Prebiotic Chemistry ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Microbial Biofilms ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Rock Record ◽  
Universal Feature ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
New Hypothesis ◽  
Surface Environment

Compartmentalisation by bioenergetic membranes is a universal feature of life. The eventual compartmentalisation of prebiotic systems is therefore often argued to comprise a key step during the origin of life. Compartments may have been active participants in prebiotic chemistry, concentrating and spatially organising key reactants. However, most prebiotically plausible compartments are leaky or unstable, limiting their utility. Here, we develop a new hypothesis for an origin of life environment that capitalises upon, and mitigates the limitations of, prebiotic compartments: multi-compartmentalised layers in the near surface environment—a ’scum’. Scum-type environments benefit from many of the same ensemble-based advantages as microbial biofilms. In particular, scum layers mediate diffusion with the wider environments, favouring preservation and sharing of early informational molecules, along with the selective concentration of compatible prebiotic compounds. Biofilms are among the earliest traces imprinted by life in the rock record: we contend that prebiotic equivalents of these environments deserve future experimental investigation.

Protective effect of clay minerals on adsorbed nucleic acid against UV radiation: possible role in the origin of life

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Scappini ◽  
F. Casadei ◽  
R. Zamboni ◽  
M. Franchi ◽  
E. Gallori ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Protective Effect ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Clay Minerals ◽  
Uv Radiation ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Uv Photons

The effect of UV radiation on solutions of free and clay-adsorbed DNA has been investigated. It turns out that clay (montmorillonite/kaolinite) adsorbed nucleic acid undergoes less radiation damage than free nucleic acid. Our laboratory experiments have an astronomical counterpart in terms of solar irradiance on the Earth. An origin of life scenario is proposed where ubiquitous clay minerals lead the surface chemistry of the molecules relevant to the biological evolution and at the same time protect them from the deadly rainfall of UV photons.

scholarly journals Scum of the Earth: a hypothesis for prebiotic multi-compartmentalised environments}

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Walton ◽  
Oliver Shorttle
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Prebiotic Chemistry ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Microbial Biofilms ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Rock Record ◽  
Universal Feature ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
New Hypothesis ◽  
Surface Environment

Compartmentalisation by bioenergetic membranes is a universal feature of life. The eventual compartmentalisation of prebiotic systems is therefore often argued to comprise a key step during the origin of life. Compartments may have been active participants in prebiotic chemistry, concentrating and spatially organising key reactants. However, most prebiotically plausible compartments are leaky or unstable, limiting their utility. Here, we develop a new hypothesis for an origin of life environment, that capitalises upon, and mitigates the limitations of, prebiotic compartments: multi-compartmentalised layers in the near surface environment --- a 'scum'. Scum-type environments benefit from many of the same ensemble-based advantages as microbial biofilms. In particular, scum layers mediate diffusion with the wider environment, favouring preservation and sharing of early informational molecules, along with the selective concentration of compatible prebiotic compounds. Biofilms are among the earliest traces imprinted by life in the rock record: we contend that prebiotic equivalents of these environments deserve future experimental investigation.

XIV.—Abiogenic Information Coupling between Nucleic Acid and Protein, or, how Protein and DNA were married

1969 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melvin Calvin
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Chemical Evolution ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
The Origin Of Life

The title to the talk this afternoon, “Abiogenic Information Coupling, or, How protein and DNA were married”, is, indeed, an excerpt from the much broader subject to which your President referred, namely chemical evolution of life on the surface of the earth, with some speculation about elsewhere as well. Actually, the “elsewhere” portion is more than a hopeful addition because it may provide a check on the speculations on the origin of life on the surface of the earth, which is very difficult to obtain inany other way.

scholarly journals Astrochemistry as the basics of Astrobiology: from simplest molecules to bioindicatorsonexoplanets surfaces

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-64
Author(s):  
A.G. Yeghikyan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Complex Compounds ◽  
Optically Active ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Heavy Hydrocarbons ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Other Substances ◽  
The Origin Of Life

The problem of the origin of Life is discussed from the astrophysical point of view. Most biologists and geologists up to the present time believe that Life was originated on the Earth in some initial natural chemical pre-reactors, where a mixture of water, ammonia, methane containing species and some other substances, under the influence of an energy source like, e.g. lightning, turned into quite complex compounds such as amino acids and complex hydrocarbons. In fact, under conditions of the primordial Earth, it is not possible to obtain such pre-biological molecules by not-bio-chemical methods, as discussed in this paper. Instead, an astrophysical view of the problem of the origin of Life on the Earth is proposed and it is recalled that the biological evolution on the Earth was preceded by the chemical evolution of complex chemical compounds, mostly under extraterrestrial conditions, where it is only possible to form optically active amino acids, sugars and heavy hydrocarbons necessary for constructing the first pre-biomolecules. Then, according to a widespread point of view, they were brought to Earth by comets and dust between 4.5 and 3.8 billion years ago. Some part of the matter of comets landed unchanged during grazing collisions. Prebiotic complexes on the surface of the planet participate in the formation of a specific cover with a reflective spectrum (or color index), whose characteristic details can be tried to reveal by observation. The most promising bio-indicators at present are optically active amino acids and their derivatives, however, the existing observational capabilities are insufficient to identify them. More promising as (pre)biomarkers are the heavy hydrocarbons discussed in this article, in particular bitumen and isoprene hydrocarbons.

Amino acid cosmogeochemistry

1991 ◽  
Vol 333 (1268) ◽  
pp. 349-358 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Cosmic Dust ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Early Earth ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Racemic Mixtures ◽  
Protein Amino Acids ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Diagenetic Reactions

Amino acids are ubiquitous components of living organisms and as a result they are widely distributed on the surface of the Earth. Whereas only 20 amino acids are found in proteins, a much more diverse mixture of amino acids has been detected in carbonaceous meteorites. Amino acids in living organisms consist exclusively of the L-enantiomers, but in meteorites, amino acids with chiral carbons are present as racemic mixtures. Protein amino acids undergo a variety of diagenetic reactions that produce some other amino acids but not the unique amino acids present in meteorites. Nevertheless, trace quantities of meteoritic amino acids may occur on the Earth, either as a result of bolide impact or from the capture of cosmic dust particles. The ensemble of amino acids present on the early Earth before life existed was probably similar to those in prebiotic experiments and meteorites. This generates a question about why the L-amino acids on which life is based were selected.

Prebiotic synthesis of carboxylic acids, amino acids and nucleic acid bases from formamide under photochemical conditions⋆

2017 ◽  
Vol 132 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Botta ◽  
Bruno Mattia Bizzarri ◽  
Davide Piccinino ◽  
Teresa Fornaro ◽  
John Robert Brucato ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Carboxylic Acids ◽  
Prebiotic Synthesis ◽  
Nucleic Acid Bases
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document