Abiotic synthesis of amino acids in the recesses of the oceanic lithosphere

Ménez, Bénédicte; Pisapia, Céline; Andréani, M.; Jamme, Frédéric; Vanbellingen, Quentin; Brunelle, Alain; Richard, Laurent; Dumas, Paul; Réfrégiers, Matthieu

doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0684-z

Cited by 205 publications

(194 citation statements)

References 67 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

190

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…by the reduction of inorganic precursors (Huber & Wächtershäuser, 1998, Proskurowski et al, 2008, Novikov & Copley, 2013. Recently, in-situ 4 evidence of abiotically formed tryptophan was obtained at depth beneath the Atlantis Massif (Mid-Atlantic Ridge), suggesting that the serpentinizing hydrothermal field could synthesize some prebiotic molecules of interest efficiently (Ménez et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decomposition of Amino Acids in Water with Application to In-Situ Measurements of Enceladus, Europa and Other Hydrothermally Active Icy Ocean Worlds

Truong¹

2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To test the potential of using amino acid abundances as a biosignature at icy ocean worlds, we investigate whether primordial amino acids (accreted or formed by early aqueous processes) could persist until the present time. By examining the decomposition kinetics of amino acids in aqueous solution based on existing laboratory rate data, we find that all fourteen proteinogenic amino acids considered in this study decompose to a very large extent (>99.9%) over relatively short lengths of time in hydrothermally active oceans. Therefore, as a rule of thumb, we suggest that if amino acids are detected at Enceladus, Europa, or other hydrothermally active ocean worlds above a concentration of 1 nM, they should have been formed recently and not be relicts of early processes. In particular, the detection of aspartic acid (Asp) and threonine (Thr) would strongly suggest active production within the ocean, as these amino acids cannot persist beyond 1 billion years even at the freezing point temperature of 273K. Identifying amino acids from the oceans of icy worlds can provide key insight into their history of organic chemistry.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decomposition of Amino Acids in Water with Application to In-Situ Measurements of Enceladus, Europa and Other Hydrothermally Active Icy Ocean Worlds

Truong¹

2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, at present, photochemically driven cyanosulfidic and cyanosulfitic protometabolism is the only path to forming all of these prerequisites in one environment, and this protometabolism proceeds only at surfaces exposed to sunlight.An alternative point of view is that both the prebiotic chemistry and subsequent evolution occurred in underwater alkaline hydrothermal vents [7,11,12]. Recently, this hypothesis has gained support from the detection of nanomolar concentrations of amino acids of possible abiotic origin, found in the oceanic lithosphere proximal to underwater hydrothermal environments [13]. These claims are, however, disputed [14][15][16].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin of Life’s Building Blocks in Carbon- and Nitrogen-Rich Surface Hydrothermal Vents

Rimmer

Shorttle

2019

Life

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There are two dominant and contrasting classes of origin of life scenarios: those predicting that life emerged in submarine hydrothermal systems, where chemical disequilibrium can provide an energy source for nascent life; and those predicting that life emerged within subaerial environments, where UV catalysis of reactions may occur to form the building blocks of life. Here, we describe a prebiotically plausible environment that draws on the strengths of both scenarios: surface hydrothermal vents. We show how key feedstock molecules for prebiotic chemistry can be produced in abundance in shallow and surficial hydrothermal systems. We calculate the chemistry of volcanic gases feeding these vents over a range of pressures and basalt C/N/O contents. If ultra-reducing carbon-rich nitrogen-rich gases interact with subsurface water at a volcanic vent they result in 10 − 3 – 1 M concentrations of diacetylene (C4H2), acetylene (C2H2), cyanoacetylene (HC3N), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), bisulfite (likely in the form of salts containing HSO3−), hydrogen sulfide (HS−) and soluble iron in vent water. One key feedstock molecule, cyanamide (CH2N2), is not formed in significant quantities within this scenario, suggesting that it may need to be delivered exogenously, or formed from hydrogen cyanide either via organometallic compounds, or by some as yet-unknown chemical synthesis. Given the likely ubiquity of surface hydrothermal vents on young, hot, terrestrial planets, these results identify a prebiotically plausible local geochemical environment, which is also amenable to future lab-based simulation.

show abstract

“…Organic synthesis in hydrothermal vents is relevant to life’s origin because the reactions involve sustained energy release founded in the disequilibrium between CO 2 and the vast amounts of molecular hydrogen, H 2 , generated in the Earth’s crust during serpentinization 1,2,9,10,15–19 . Enzymatic versions of those abiotic reactions occur in core energy metabolism in acetogens and methanogens 4–7 , ancient anaerobic autotrophs that live from H 2 and CO 2 via the acetyl-CoA pathway and that still inhabit the crust today 7 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A hydrogen dependent geochemical analogue of primordial carbon and energy metabolism

Preiner

Igarashi

Muchowska

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

28Hydrogen gas, H2, is generated in alkaline hydrothermal vents from reactions of iron 29 containing minerals with water during a geological process called serpentinization. It has been 30 a source of electrons and energy since there was liquid water on the early Earth, and it fuelled 31 early anaerobic ecosystems in the Earth's crust 1-3 . H2 is the electron donor for the most 32 ancient route of biological CO2 fixation, the acetyl-CoA (or Wood-Ljungdahl) pathway, 33 which unlike any other autotrophic pathway simultaneously supplies three key requirements 34 for life: reduced carbon in the form of acetyl groups, electrons in the form of reduced 35 ferredoxin, and ion gradients for energy conservation in the form of ATP 4,5 . The pathway is 36 linear, not cyclic, it releases energy rather than requiring energy input, its enzymes are replete 37 with primordial metal cofactors 6,7 , it traces to the last universal common ancestor 8 and abiotic, 38 geochemical organic syntheses resembling segments of the pathway occur in hydrothermal 39 vents today 9,10 . Laboratory simulations of the acetyl-CoA pathway's reactions include the 40 nonenzymatic synthesis of thioesters from CO and methylsulfide 11 , the synthesis of acetate 12 41 and pyruvate 13 from CO2 using native iron or external electrochemical potentials 14 as the 42 electron source. However, a full abiotic analogue of the acetyl-CoA pathway from H2 and 43 CO2 as it occurs in life has not been reported to date. Here we show that three hydrothermal 44 mineralsawaruite (Ni3Fe), magnetite (Fe3O4) and greigite (Fe3S4)catalyse the fixation 45 of CO2 with H2 at 100 °C under alkaline aqueous conditions. The product spectrum includes 46 formate (100 mM), acetate (100 µM), pyruvate (10 µM), methanol (100 µM), and methane. 47 With these simple catalysts, the overall exergonic reaction of the acetyl-CoA pathway is 48 facile, shedding light on both the geochemical origin of microbial metabolism and on the 49 nature of abiotic formate and methane synthesis in modern hydrothermal vents. 50 51 Organic synthesis in hydrothermal vents is relevant to life's origin because the reactions 52 involve sustained energy release founded in the disequilibrium between CO2 and the vast 53 amounts of molecular hydrogen, H2, generated in the Earth's crust during 54 serpentinization 1,2,9,10,[15][16][17][18][19] . Enzymatic versions of those abiotic reactions occur in core energy 55 metabolism in acetogens and methanogens 4-7 , ancient anaerobic autotrophs that live from H2 56 and CO2 via the acetyl-CoA pathway and that still inhabit the crust today 7 . Though the 57 enzymes that catalyse the microbial reactions are well investigated 4-7 , the catalysts promoting 58 the abiotic reactions in vents today, and that might have been instrumental at life's origin, are 59 not fully understood 9 . To probe the mechanisms of hydrothermal metabolic reactions 60 3 emulating ancient pathways, we investigated three iron minerals that naturally occur in 61 hydrothermal vents: greigite (...

show abstract

Abiotic synthesis of amino acids in the recesses of the oceanic lithosphere

Cited by 205 publications

References 67 publications

Decomposition of Amino Acids in Water with Application to In-Situ Measurements of Enceladus, Europa and Other Hydrothermally Active Icy Ocean Worlds

Decomposition of Amino Acids in Water with Application to In-Situ Measurements of Enceladus, Europa and Other Hydrothermally Active Icy Ocean Worlds

Origin of Life’s Building Blocks in Carbon- and Nitrogen-Rich Surface Hydrothermal Vents

A hydrogen dependent geochemical analogue of primordial carbon and energy metabolism

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About