Photo-alteration of hydantoins against UV light and its relevance to prebiotic chemistry

Sarker, Palash Kumar; Takahashi, Joji; Obayashi, Yumiko; Kaneko, Takeo; Kobayashi, Kensei

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2013.01.029

Cited by 26 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“… 38 , 39 In a more recent work, it was shown that the photolysis of 5-substituted hydantoin by UV light leads to obtain amino acids and imidazolidinedione. 40 In more complex organisms, like plants, these have adapted to high radiations of this UVB light; thus, their branches, stems, and internodes are shorter compared to plants not exposed to high radiation. 41 − 44 The diminution in the size of their organs is due to UVB affecting different biomolecules and, hence, modifying the metabolic processes.…”

Section: Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silica-Carbonate of Ba(II) and Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ Complex as Study Models to Understand Prebiotic Chemistry

Islas

Cuéllar‐Cruz

2021

ACS Omega

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The Precambrian era is called the first stage of the Earth history and is considered the longest stage in the geological time scale. Despite its duration, several of its environmental and chemical characteristics are still being studied. It is an era of special relevance not only for its duration but also because it is when a set of conditions gave rise to the first organism. This pioneer organism has been proposed to have been formed by a mineral and an organic part. A chemical element suggested to have been part of the structure of this cell is iron. However, what special characteristic does iron have with respect to other chemical elements to be proposed as part of this first cell? To answer this and other questions, it is indispensable to have a model that will allow extrapolating the first chemical structures of the pioneer organism formed in the Precambrian. In this context, for several decades, in vitro structures chemically formed by silica-carbonates have been synthetized, called biomorphs, because they could emulate living organisms and might resemble primitive organisms. It has been inferred that because biomorphs form structures with characteristic morphologies, they could resemble the microfossils found in the cherts of the Precambrian. Aiming at providing some insight on how iron contributed to the formation of the chemical structures of the primitive organism, we evaluated how iron contributes to the morphology and chemical–crystalline structure during the synthesis of these compounds under different conditions found in the primitive atmosphere. Experimentally, synthesis of biomorphs was performed at four different atmospheric conditions including UV light, nonionizing microwave radiation (NIR-mw), water steam (WS), and CO 2 in the presence of Fe 2+ , Fe 3+ , and Fe 2+ /Fe 3+ , obtaining 48 different conditions. The produced biomorphs were observed under scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Afterward, their chemical composition and crystalline structure were analyzed through Raman and IR spectroscopy.

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Section: Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silica-Carbonate of Ba(II) and Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ Complex as Study Models to Understand Prebiotic Chemistry

Islas

Cuéllar‐Cruz

2021

ACS Omega

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“…However, these same properties mean that UV light is an ideal candidate as a source of energy for Miller-Urey style synthesis of prebiotic molecules (Sagan and Khare 1971;Chyba and Sagan 1992;Pestunova et al 2005). UV light has been invoked in prebiotic chemistry as diverse as the origin of chirality (Rosenberg et al 2008), the synthesis of amino acids (Sarker et al 2013), and the formation of ribonucleotides (Powner et al 2009). Due to the greater fractional output of the young Sun in the UV compared to the modern Sun (Ribas et al 2010;Claire et al 2012), as well as the absence of biogenic UV-shielding O 2 and O 3 in the prebiotic terrestrial atmosphere, UV light is expected to have been a ubiquitous component of the prebiotic environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of the UV Environment on the Synthesis of Prebiotic Molecules

2016

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Ultraviolet radiation is common to most planetary environments and could play a key role in the chemistry of molecules relevant to abiogenesis (prebiotic chemistry). In this work, we explore the impact of UV light on prebiotic chemistry that might occur in liquid water on the surface of a planet with an atmosphere. We consider effects including atmospheric absorption, attenuation by water, and stellar variability to constrain the UV input as a function of wavelength. We conclude that the UV environment would be characterized by broadband input, and wavelengths below 204 nm and 168 nm would be shielded out by atmospheric CO2 and water, respectively. We compare this broadband prebiotic UV input to the narrowband UV sources (e.g., mercury lamps) often used in laboratory studies of prebiotic chemistry and explore the implications for the conclusions drawn from these experiments. We consider as case studies the ribonucleotide synthesis pathway of Powner et al. (2009) and the sugar synthesis pathway of Ritson and Sutherland (2012). Irradiation by narrowband UV light from a mercury lamp formed an integral component of these studies; we quantitatively explore the impact of more realistic UV input on the conclusions that can be drawn from these experiments. Finally, we explore the constraints solar UV input places on the buildup of prebiotically important feedstock gasses like CH4 and HCN. Our results demonstrate the importance of characterizing the wavelength dependence (action spectra) of prebiotic synthesis pathways to determine how pathways derived under laboratory irradiation conditions will function under planetary prebiotic conditions.

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“…These properties mean that UV light can destroy molecules important to abiogenesis (Sagan 1973), but also that UV light can power photochemistry relevant to the synthesis of prebiotically important molecules. UV light has been invoked in prebiotic chemistry as diverse as the origin of chirality (Rosenberg et al 2008), the synthesis of amino acid precursors (Sarker et al 2013), and the polymerization of RNA (Mulkidjanian et al 2003). Most recently, UV light has been shown to play a key role in the first plausible prebiotic synthesis of the activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides (Powner et al 2009), the synthesis of glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde (Ritson and Sutherland 2012), and a reaction network generating precursors for a range of prebiotically important molecules including lipids, amino acids, and ribonucleotides (Patel et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraints on the Early Terrestrial Surface UV Environment Relevant to Prebiotic Chemistry

Ranjan

Sasselov

2017

Astrobiology

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The UV environment is a key boundary condition to abiogenesis. However, considerable uncertainty exists as to planetary conditions and hence surface UV at abiogenesis. Here, we present two-stream multilayer clear-sky calculations of the UV surface radiance on Earth at 3.9 Ga to constrain the UV surface fluence as a function of albedo, solar zenith angle (SZA), and atmospheric composition. Variation in albedo and latitude (through SZA) can affect maximum photoreaction rates by a factor of >10.4; for the same atmosphere, photoreactions can proceed an order of magnitude faster at the equator of a snowball Earth than at the poles of a warmer world. Hence, surface conditions are important considerations when computing prebiotic UV fluences. For climatically reasonable levels of CO, fluence shortward of 189 nm is screened out, meaning that prebiotic chemistry is robustly shielded from variations in UV fluence due to solar flares or variability. Strong shielding from CO also means that the UV surface fluence is insensitive to plausible levels of CH, O, and O. At scattering wavelengths, UV fluence drops off comparatively slowly with increasing CO levels. However, if SO and/or HS can build up to the ≥1-100 ppm level as hypothesized by some workers, then they can dramatically suppress surface fluence and hence prebiotic photoprocesses. HO is a robust UV shield for λ < 198 nm. This means that regardless of the levels of other atmospheric gases, fluence ≲198 nm is only available for cold, dry atmospheres, meaning sources with emission ≲198 (e.g., ArF excimer lasers) can only be used in simulations of cold environments with low abundance of volcanogenic gases. On the other hand, fluence at 254 nm is unshielded by HO and is available across a broad range of [Formula: see text], meaning that mercury lamps are suitable for initial studies regardless of the uncertainty in primordial HO and CO levels. Key Words: Radiative transfer-Origin of life-Planetary environments-UV radiation-Prebiotic chemistry. Astrobiology 17, 169-204.

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Photo-alteration of hydantoins against UV light and its relevance to prebiotic chemistry

Cited by 26 publications

References 20 publications

Silica-Carbonate of Ba(II) and Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ Complex as Study Models to Understand Prebiotic Chemistry

Silica-Carbonate of Ba(II) and Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ Complex as Study Models to Understand Prebiotic Chemistry

Influence of the UV Environment on the Synthesis of Prebiotic Molecules

Constraints on the Early Terrestrial Surface UV Environment Relevant to Prebiotic Chemistry

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Photo-alteration of hydantoins against UV light and its relevance to prebiotic chemistry

Cited by 26 publications

References 20 publications

Silica-Carbonate of Ba(II) and Fe2+/Fe3+ Complex as Study Models to Understand Prebiotic Chemistry

Silica-Carbonate of Ba(II) and Fe2+/Fe3+ Complex as Study Models to Understand Prebiotic Chemistry

Influence of the UV Environment on the Synthesis of Prebiotic Molecules

Constraints on the Early Terrestrial Surface UV Environment Relevant to Prebiotic Chemistry

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Product

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Silica-Carbonate of Ba(II) and Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ Complex as Study Models to Understand Prebiotic Chemistry

Silica-Carbonate of Ba(II) and Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ Complex as Study Models to Understand Prebiotic Chemistry