✦ LIBER ✦

Prebiotic synthesis of sequential peptides on the Hadean beach by a molecular engine working with nitrogen oxides as energy sources

✍ Scribed by Auguste Commeyras; Hélène Collet; Laurent Boiteau; Jacques Taillades; Odile Vandenabeele-Trambouze; Hervé Cottet; Jean-Philippe Biron; Raphaël Plasson; Louis Mion; Olivier Lagrille; Hervé Martin; Franck Selsis; Michel Dobrijevic

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
Year: 2002
Tongue: English
Weight: 111 KB
Volume: 51
Category: Article
ISSN: 0959-8103
DOI: 10.1002/pi.1027

No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Addressing the still open question of the prebiotic origin of sequential macromolecules (peptides, nucleic acids) on the primitive Earth, we describe a molecular engine (the primary pump), which works at ambient temperature and continuously generates, elongates and complexifies sequential peptides. This new scenario is based on a cyclic reaction sequence, whose keystep is the activation of amino acids into their N‐carboxyanhydrides (NCA) through nitrosation by NOx. This process could have taken place on tidal beaches; it requires a buffered ocean, emerged land and a nitrosating atmosphere. With the help of geochemical studies and computer simulations of atmosphere photochemistry, we show that the primitive Earth during the Hadean may have satisfied all these requirements.