ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2011
Serpentinite and the dawn of life.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 57 papers.
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57 citing papers in PubMed.
- Novel Antarctic chemolithotroph drives iron biomineralization.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Prebiotic aqueous reactions catalyzed by native nickel without hydrogen.The FEBS journal · 2026Article
- Early Archaean subduction and intracrustal processes: experimental evidence from the East Pilbara Terrane, Australia.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The hydrogen, methane and ammonia biosphere on early Earth.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Making continental crust on water-bearing terrestrial planets.Science advances · 2025Article
- Chemiosmotic ATP synthesis by minimal protocells.Cell reports. Physical science · 2025Article
- The early evolution of the glycolytic pathway from autotrophic origins to glycogen and back.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Microbial ecology of serpentinite-hosted ecosystems.The ISME journal · 2025Review
- Chemical Antiquity in Metabolism.Accounts of chemical research · 2024Article
- Autocatalytic Selection as a Driver for the Origin of Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Ferredoxin reduction by hydrogen with iron functions as an evolutionary precursor of flavin-based electron bifurcation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Was hydrogen peroxide present before the arrival of oxygenic photosynthesis? The important role of iron(II) in the Archean ocean.Redox biology · 2024Review
- Mineral Indicators of Geologically Recent Past Habitability on Mars.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The rocky road to organics needs drying.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Serpentinization as the source of energy, electrons, organics, catalysts, nutrients and pH gradients for the origin of LUCA and life.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Review
- Intact polar lipidome and membrane adaptations of microbial communities inhabiting serpentinite-hosted fluids.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- On the potential roles of phosphorus in the early evolution of energy metabolism.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Review
- A Physicochemical Consideration of Prebiotic Microenvironments for Self-Assembly and Prebiotic Chemistry.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- COJournal of geophysical research. Planets · 2022Article
- Role of geochemical protoenzymes (geozymes) in primordial metabolism: specific abiotic hydride transfer by metals to the biological redox cofactor NADThe FEBS journal · 2022Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
Submarine hydrothermal vents above serpentinite produce chemical potential gradients of aqueous and ionic hydrogen, thus providing a very attractive venue for the origin of life. This environment was most favourable before Earth's massive CO(2) atmosphere was subducted into the mantle, which occurred tens to approximately 100 Myr after the moon-forming impact; thermophile to clement conditions persisted for several million years while atmospheric pCO(2) dropped from approximately 25 bar to below 1 bar. The ocean was weakly acid (pH ∼ 6), and a large pH gradient existed for nascent life with pH 9-11 fluids venting from serpentinite on the seafloor. Total CO(2) in water was significant so the vent environment was not carbon limited. Biologically important phosphate and Fe(II) were somewhat soluble during this period, which occurred well before the earliest record of preserved surface rocks approximately 3.8 billion years ago (Ga) when photosynthetic life teemed on the Earth and the oceanic pH was the modern value of approximately 8. Serpentinite existed by 3.9 Ga, but older rocks that might retain evidence of its presence have not been found. Earth's sequesters extensive evidence of Archaean and younger subducted biological material, but has yet to be exploited for the Hadean record.
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