ArticleJournal of molecular evolution1995
Are polyphosphates or phosphate esters prebiotic reagents?
Article in Journal of molecular evolution, 1995. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 169 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mafic-ultramafic igneous rocks as a source of reactive phosphorus for the origin of life.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A Novel Polyphosphate-Degrading Enzyme Confers Growth on Exogenous Polyphosphate in the Archaeon Haloferax volcanii.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Abiotic synthesis of RNase-resistant phosphodiester and pyrophosphate-linked polymers via thermodynamically controlled wet-dry cycling.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Formose Reaction with SOLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Various inorganic phosphorus species in prebiotic Earth and extraterrestrial settings.Discover chemistry · 2026Review
- Sugars to Acids via Thioesters: A Computational Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Magmatic and thermally produced reactive phosphorus 3.2 billion years ago and its implications for early life.Communications earth & environment · 2025Article
- Rethinking life and predicting its origin.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2024Article
- Prebiotic Synthesis of ATP: A Terrestrial Volcanism-Dependent Pathway.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- On the potential roles of phosphorus in the early evolution of energy metabolism.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Review
- Prebiotic chemical refugia: multifaceted scenario for the formation of biomolecules in primitive Earth.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2022Review
- Prebiotic Chemistry: The Role of Trimetaphosphate in Prebiotic Chemical Evolution.Frontiers in chemistry · 2022Review
- A physicochemical orthophosphate cycle via a kinetically stable thermodynamically activated intermediate enables mild prebiotic phosphorylations.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Plausible Emergence and Self Assembly of a Primitive Phospholipid from Reduced Phosphorus on the Primordial Earth.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2021Review
- The Grayness of the Origin of Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Did Cyclic Metaphosphates Have a Role in the Origin of Life?Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2021Review
- Connecting primitive phase separation to biotechnology, synthetic biology, and engineering.Journal of biosciences · 2021Review
- Silicate-, Magnesium Ion-, and Urea-Induced Prebiotic Phosphorylation of Uridine via Pyrophosphate; Revisiting the Hot Drying Water Pool Scenario.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- The Prebiotic Provenance of Semi-Aqueous Solvents.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2020Article
- Defining Lyfe in the Universe: From Three Privileged Functions to Four Pillars.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is widely held that there was a phosphate compound in prebiotic chemistry that played the role of adenosine triphosphate and that the first living organisms had ribose-phosphate in the backbone of their genetic material. However, there are no known efficient prebiotic synthesis of high-energy phosphates or phosphate esters. We review the occurrence of phosphates in Nature, the efficiency of the volcanic synthesis of P4O10, the efficiency of polyphosphate synthesis by heating phosphate minerals under geological conditions, and the use of high-energy organic compounds such as cyanamide or hydrogen cyanide. These are shown to be inefficient processes especially when the hydrolysis of the polyphosphates is taken into account. For example, if a whole atmosphere of methane or carbon monoxide were converted to cyanide which somehow synthesized polyphosphates quantitatively, the polyphosphate concentration in the ocean would still have been insignificant. We also attempted to find more efficient high-energy polymerizing agents by spark discharge syntheses, but without success. There may still be undiscovered robust prebiotic syntheses of polyphosphates, or mechanisms for concentrating them, but we conclude that phosphate esters may not have been constituents of the first genetic material. Phosphoanhydrides are also unlikely as prebiotic energy sources.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.