A note on the prebiotic synthesis of organic acids in carbonaceous meteorites

Strong similarities between monocarboxylic and hydroxycarboxylic acids in the Murchison meteorite suggest corresponding similarities in their origins. However, various lines of evidence apparently implicate quite different precursor compounds in the synthesis of the different acids. These seeming inconsistencies can be resolved by postulating that the apparent precursors also share a related origin. Pervasive D enrichment indicates that this origin was in a presolar molecular cloud. The organic acids themselves were probably synthesized [correction of synthesised] in an aqueous environment on an asteroidal parent body, the hydroxy (and amino) acids by means of the Strecker cyanohydrin reaction.