Amino acid dependent formation of phosphate anhydrides in water mediated by carbonyl sulfide

Carbonyl sulfide (COS), a component of volcanic gas emissions and interstellar gas clouds, is shown to be an efficient condensing agent in the context of phosphate chemistry in aqueous solutions. We report that high-energy aminoacyl-phosphate anhydrides and aminoacyl adenylates are generated in solutions containing amino acids, COS, and the corresponding phosphate molecule. We further show that the mixed anhydrides of amino acids and inorganic phosphate are phosphorylating agents, producing pyrophosphate in better than 30% yield in the presence of Ca2+ precipitates. The amino acid dependent activations of phosphate reported here, which occur in parallel with the production of peptides, suggest that these two reactions may have shared a common intermediate on the prebiotic Earth.