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Potentially prebiotic syntheses of condensed phosphates
1Department of Chemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0317, USA.
Summary
Researchers explored prebiotic chemical reactions to form high-energy phosphates. While some processes yielded pyrophosphate and trimetaphosphate, they were not robust enough for the early ocean environment.
Area of Science:
- Prebiotic chemistry
- Origin of life studies
- Geochemistry
Background:
- High-energy phosphates are crucial for early life.
- Understanding prebiotic synthesis of these molecules is key to origin of life research.
- Previous research has explored various chemical pathways for phosphate condensation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate prebiotic processes for synthesizing condensed phosphates from orthophosphate and tripolyphosphate.
- To evaluate the potential of specific reagents in forming pyrophosphate and trimetaphosphate under prebiotic conditions.
- To assess the viability of these reactions in the context of the early Earth's environment, particularly the open ocean.
Main Methods:
- Investigated reactions using polymerizing nitriles, acid anhydrides, lactones, hexamethylene tetramine, and carbon suboxide.
- Tested the conversion of orthophosphate to pyrophosphate.
- Tested the conversion of tripolyphosphate to trimetaphosphate.
Main Results:
- Several investigated processes yielded substantial amounts of pyrophosphate from orthophosphate.
- Substantial yields of trimetaphosphate were obtained from tripolyphosphate using certain reagents.
- The efficiency and robustness of these reactions were found to be limited.
Conclusions:
- The studied reactions could produce key high-energy phosphate molecules like pyrophosphate and trimetaphosphate.
- These specific prebiotic processes were likely not significant on a large scale in the prebiotic open ocean.
- Localized prebiotic environments might have supported these phosphate-forming reactions.