No abstract

Phosphorus is an essential element in living organisms. Evaluating prebiotic processes that lead to phosphorylated biomolecules is an important step toward understanding the origin of life. Schreibersite ([Fe,Ni]3P) is a meteoritic phosphorus mineral which releases various phosphorus species reactive toward biomolecules. We studied the reactions between biomolecules and pyrophosphorus acid (H4P2O5), which is a phosphorous acid derivative released from schreibersite. The reactions between pyrophosphorous acid and molecules having hydroxy groups were carried out under mild alkaline conditions. Notably, some biologically important molecules such as l-serine, l-tyrosine, l-threonine, d-ribose, and d-glyceraldehyde reacted with pyrophosphorous acid to give corresponding phosphonates. These results suggested that if schreibersite and the biomolecules co-existed in the prebiotic earth, they formed the phosphonates which were able to play roles as surrogates or precursors of phosphorylated biomolecules.