The interaction of biological molecules with clay minerals: a scanning force microscopy study

We have used the technique of scanning force microscopy (SFM) to investigate the reaction of both amino acids and activated nucleotides in the presence of the clay mineral Cu(II)-exchanged hectorite. Using simulated prebiotic heating and wetting cycles, we have shown that the clay mineral acts to adsorb, concentrate, and subsequently catalyze the polymerization of these biological monomers into short peptides and oligonucleotides. The presence of the Cu(II) cations within the clay intergallery regions, and at surface step edges and cracks, is crucial for the observed reactions to occur. Clay minerals such as hectorite may have thus played an important role in the evolution of biologically viable molecules on the prebiotic earth.