Hydration–dehydration interactions between glycine and anhydrous salts: Implications for a chemical evolution of life

Kitadai, Norio; Yokoyama, Tadashi; Nakashima, Satoru

doi:10.1016/j.gca.2011.08.027

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…While magnesium sulfate was found to be advantageous, magnesium and potassium carbonates were found to produce even higher yields of LG, whereas other salts including most that are used as water scavengers gave little enhancement. This corresponds with other recent findings that magnesium salts are superior to those of strontium, barium or lithium for the polymerization of glycine and far superior to salt-free dehydrations (Kitadai et al 2011). Also, magnesium and calcium carbonates have been shown to increase the formation of alanine oligomers under hydrothermal conditions .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Although there is no general agreement as to which conditions might have produced peptides on the prebiotic Earth, numerous conceivable candidate conditions have been described. The formation of peptides from amino acids has included high temperatures (Fox and Middlebrook 1954;Shock 1993;Sakata et al 2010), wetting/drying cycles (Schwendinger et al 1995), clays (Fuchida et al 2014), high pressures (Otake et al 2011), adsorption (Gururani et al 2012;Lambert 2008), hygroscopic salts (Lambert 2008;Kitadai et al 2011), activating agents (Hulshof and Ponnamperuma 1976;Brack 1982), sulfide minerals (Ohara and Cody 2010), and near saturation of water with sodium chloride combined with copper(II) salts (Lahav and Chang 1982;Rode and Schwendinger 1990;Rode et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Abiogenic Syntheses of Lipoamino Acids and Lipopeptides and their Prebiotic Significance

Sproul

2015

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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Researchers have formed peptide bonds under a variety of presumed prebiotic conditions. Here it is proposed that these same conditions would have also formed amide bonds between fatty acids and amino acids, producing phosphate-free amphipathic lipoamino acids and lipopeptides. These compounds are known to form vesicles and are ubiquitous in living organisms. They could represent molecules that provided protection by membranes as well as possibilities for proto-life metabolism . It is here demonstrated that when a fatty acid is heated with various amino acids, optimally in the presence of suitable salts or minerals, lipoamino acids are formed. Magnesium and potassium carbonates as well as iron (II) sulfide are found to be particularly useful in these reactions. In this manner N-lauroylglycine, N-lauroylalanine, N-stearoylalanine and several other lipoamino acids have been synthesized. Similarly, when glycylglycine was heated with lauric acid in the presence of magnesium carbonate, the lipopeptide N-lauroylglycylglycine was formed. Such compounds are proposed to have been critical precursors to the development of life.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abiogenic Syntheses of Lipoamino Acids and Lipopeptides and their Prebiotic Significance

Sproul

2015

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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“…7s) in comparison to the hydration of serine-Ca and serine-Mg complexes. Divalent metal cation could enhance the prebiotic formation of the first peptides from amino acids (Beck 2011;Kitadai et al 2011;Remko and Rode 2004). The differences in the efficiency of hydration of homo and heterochiral metal cation-amino acid complexes undoubtedly led to the amplification of formation of homochiral peptides in water solution from which life emerged.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydration of serine–metal cation complexes: implication for the role of water in the origin of homochirality on the Earth

Frański

2019

Amino Acids

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It may be taken for granted that the processes that occurred in water were of crucial importance for the origin of life. Therefore, it is quite likely that water was also important with respect to the origin of homochirality. Here, it is shown, using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, that the efficiency of hydration of homochiral serine-metal cation complexes is different from that of heterochiral serine-metal cation complexes. The differences in the efficiency of hydration of homo and heterochiral metal cation-amino acid complexes could lead to the amplification of formation of homochiral peptides in water solution from which life emerged.

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“…Unfortunately, sufficient kinetic parameters as a function of temperature are not available in the literature for these reactions; consequently, it is not possible to predict reaction rates at temperature conditions lower than 0°C. For Gly polymerization in the solid state, many laboratory experiments have been performed with a variety of catalysts including minerals (e.g., silica; Lambert, 2008), salts (e.g., SrCl 2 ; Kitadai et al, 2011), and metal cations (e.g., Cu 2 + ; Rode, 1999). Interestingly, the polymerization rate of Gly does not show simple temperature dependence (i.e., slower reaction rate at lower temperature) in heterogeneous systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymerization of Building Blocks of Life on Europa and Other Icy Moons

Kimura

Kitadai

2015

Astrobiology

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The outer Solar System may provide a potential habitat for extraterrestrial life. Remote sensing data from the Galileo spacecraft suggest that the jovian icy moons-Europa, Ganymede, and possibly Callisto-may harbor liquid water oceans underneath their icy crusts. Although compositional information required for the discussion of habitability is limited because of significantly restricted observation data, organic molecules are ubiquitous in the Universe. Recently, in situ spacecraft measurements and experiments suggest that amino acids can be formed abiotically on interstellar ices and comets. These amino acids could be continuously delivered by meteorite or comet impacts to icy moons. Here, we show that polymerization of organic monomers, in particular amino acids and nucleotides, could proceed spontaneously in the cold environment of icy moons, in particular the jovian icy moon Europa as a typical example, based on thermodynamic calculations, though kinetics of formation are not addressed. Observed surface temperature on Europa is 120 and 80 K in the equatorial region and polar region, respectively. At such low temperatures, Gibbs energies of polymerization become negative, and the estimated thermal structure of the icy crust should contain a shallow region (i.e., at a depth of only a few kilometers) favorable for polymerization. Investigation of the possibility of organic monomer polymerization on icy moons could provide good constraints on the origin and early evolution of extraterrestrial life.

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Hydration–dehydration interactions between glycine and anhydrous salts: Implications for a chemical evolution of life

Cited by 25 publications

References 76 publications

Abiogenic Syntheses of Lipoamino Acids and Lipopeptides and their Prebiotic Significance

Abiogenic Syntheses of Lipoamino Acids and Lipopeptides and their Prebiotic Significance

Hydration of serine–metal cation complexes: implication for the role of water in the origin of homochirality on the Earth

Polymerization of Building Blocks of Life on Europa and Other Icy Moons

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