Oxidative Phosphorus Chemistry Perturbed by Minerals

Abstract

Life is a complex, open chemical system that must be supported with energy inputs. If one fathoms how simple early life must have been, the complexity of modern-day life is staggering by comparison. A minimally complex system that could plausibly provide pyrophosphates for early life could be the oxidation of reduced phosphorus sources such as hypophosphite and phosphite. Like all plausible prebiotic chemistries, this system would have been altered by minerals and rocks in close contact with the evolving solutions. This study addresses the different types of perturbations that minerals might have on this chemical system. This study finds that minerals may inhibit the total production of oxidized phosphorus from reduced phosphorus species, they may facilitate the production of phosphate, or they may facilitate the production of pyrophosphate. This study concludes with the idea that mineral perturbations from the environment increase the chemical complexity of this system.

A fluorometric assay for high-throughput phosphite quantitation in biological and environmental matrices

“…This LOD reported is a nearly two-fold improvement from the previously reported value for the analogous Phi detection assay. The LOD is also competitive with alternative methods developed for Phi detection, including 31 P-NMR (630–1000 μM LOD) 27 or ion chromatography (0.04–0.39 μM LOD), 28,29 but with the advantage of the relative ease of analysis, quicker processing time, and lower cost.…”

Carbonyl Migration in Uronates Affords a Potential Prebiotic Pathway for Pentose Production

“…The Fenton reaction employing ferrous iron and H 2 O 2 is attractive from a prebiotic perspective because ferrous iron , and H 2 O 2 may have been geochemically available on early Earth. Fenton’s reagent has been reported by Larsen and Smidsrød to afford the oxidation of aldonic acids to uronic acids; however, the available analytical tools employed at the time of this study limited product identification.…”

On the potential roles of phosphorus in the early evolution of energy metabolism

“…However, reduced phosphorus species that were likely common on the ancient Earth may have produced pyrophosphate under relevant conditions ( Pasek, 2017 ). This could have been either from the dissolution of phosphide minerals such as schreibersite, delivered to Earth via meteorites, or via the direct oxidation of phosphite and hypophosphite ( Bryant et al, 2013 ; Kee et al, 2013 ; Omran et al, 2022 ). Yet, even accounting for the increased volcanic activity and likely prevalence of reduced phosphorus species on the ancient Earth, the more reducing environment of the early Earth, coupled with the instability of pyrophosphate in aqueous solutions and its rarity in modern environments, suggests that pyrophosphate was unlikely to be abundant and available for early life in most scenarios ( Schwartz, 2006 ).…”