ArticleOrigins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life2008
Thermodynamic potential for the abiotic synthesis of adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, uracil, ribose, and deoxyribose in hydrothermal systems.
Article in Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Origin of Life in the Early Continental Crust: A Comprehensive Model.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Prebiotic Synthesis of ATP: A Terrestrial Volcanism-Dependent Pathway.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Early Nitrogenase Ancestors Encompassed Novel Active Site Diversity.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- The Energetic Potential for Undiscovered Manganese Metabolisms in Nature.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Sulfidic Anion Concentrations on Early Earth for Surficial Origins-of-Life Chemistry.Astrobiology · 2018Article
- The energetics of anabolism in natural settings.The ISME journal · 2016Article
- A Prebiotic Chemistry Experiment on the Adsorption of Nucleic Acids Bases onto a Natural Zeolite.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2015Article
- Accelerated reaction simulations: A virtual squeeze on chemistry.Nature chemistry · 2014Article
- The energetics of organic synthesis inside and outside the cell.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2013Review
- The significance of Mg in prebiotic geochemistry.Geobiology · 2012Article
- Adsorption of adenine and thymine on zeolites: FT-IR and EPR spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry and SEM studies.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2012Article
- Adsorption of adenine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil on sulfide-modified montmorillonite: FT-IR, Mössbauer and EPR spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry studies.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2011Article
- Reduction of nitrogen compounds in oceanic basement and its implications for HCN formation and abiotic organic synthesis.Geochemical transactions · 2009Article
- Organic analysis of peridotite rocks from the Ashadze and Logatchev hydrothermal sites.International journal of molecular sciences · 2009Article
- Precambrian lunar volcanic protolife.International journal of molecular sciences · 2009Review
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2 authors.
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Abstract
The thermodynamic potential for the abiotic synthesis of the five common nucleobases (adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, and uracil) and two monosaccharides (ribose and deoxyribose) from formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide has been quantified under temperature, pressure, and bulk composition conditions that are representative of hydrothermal systems. The activities of the precursor molecules (formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide) required to evaluate the thermodynamics of biomolecule synthesis were computed using the concentrations of aqueous N2, CO, CO2 and H2 reported in the modern Rainbow hydrothermal system. The concentrations of precursor molecules that can be synthesized are strongly dependent on temperature with larger concentrations prevailing at lower temperatures. Similarly, the thermodynamic drive to synthesize nucleobases, ribose and deoxyribose varies considerably as a function of temperature: all of the biomolecules considered in this study are thermodynamically favored to be synthesized throughout the temperature range from 0 degrees C to between 150 degrees C and 250 degrees C, depending on the biomolecule. Furthermore, activity diagrams have been generated to illustrate that activities in the range of 10(-2)- 10(-6) for nucleobases, ribose and deoxyribose can be in equilibrium with a range of precursor molecule activities at 150 degrees C and 500 bars. The results presented here support the notion that hydrothermal systems could have played a fundamental role in the origin of life, and can be used to plan and constrain experimental investigation of the abiotic synthesis of nucleic-acid related biomolecules.
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