Meteorite-catalyzed synthesis of nucleosides and other prebiotic compounds

0444123 - ÚFCH JH 2016 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Ferus, Martin - Knížek, Antonín - Civiš, Svatopluk
Meteorite-catalyzed synthesis of nucleosides and other prebiotic compounds.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Roč. 112, č. 23 (2015), s. 7109-7110. ISSN 0027-8424. E-ISSN 1091-6490
Institutional support: RVO:61388955
Keywords : meteorite-catalzzed synthesis * nucleosides * prebiotic compounds
Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry
Impact factor: 9.423, year: 2015

The origin of life is a longstanding enigma Q:6 that fascinates scientists and the general public alike. Scientific efforts have yielded a significant amount of data over the last 100 y following a fundamental cornerstone publication: Proiskhozhozhdenie Zhizny (Origin of Life) by Alexander Ivanovich Oparin (1). Currently Q:7 , the formamide-based synthesis of biomolecules catalyzed or initiated by extraterrestrial minerals may have become one of the most discussed landmarks in the field of prebiotic chemistry (2). Saladino et al. (2) show that a formamide-rich extraterrestrial body could deliver a significantly large palette of biomolecules to the early Earth. The authors demonstrate that formamide irradiation by protons—used to simulate the solar wind—in the presence of selected extraterrestrial materials (samples of the main meteorite classes) can lead to the synthesis of many basic components of the primordial soup during such a period of wandering through the early solar system. Using mass spectrometry, the authors detected nucleosides, nucleic bases, amino acids, sugars, and carboxylic acids. Although the study does not identify a universal catalyst for the synthesis of all of the biomolecules, considering the RNA world hypothesis, all of the canonical nucleic bases are synthesized together with ribose, in the presence of, for example, the NWA 1465 meteorite. The synthesis of the entire major groups of biomolecules using one family of catalyst represents a significant success.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0246716