ArticleGeobiology2012
The significance of Mg in prebiotic geochemistry.
Article in Geobiology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Thermodynamic Constraints on Glycerol-Based Proto-Nucleotides: Phosphate Versus Arsenate in Early Backbone Evolution.Journal of molecular evolution · 2026Article
- Biosynthesis of Feruloyl Glycerol from Ferulic Acid and Glycerol Through a Two-Enzyme Cascade Reaction.Applied biochemistry and biotechnology · 2024Article
- Prebiotic N-(2-Aminoethyl)-Glycine (AEG)-Assisted Synthesis of Proto-RNA?Journal of molecular evolution · 2024Article
- Ancient nitrogenases are ATP dependent.mBio · 2024Article
- How Does MgJournal of the American Chemical Society · 2024Article
- Challenges and Pitfalls of Research Designs Involving Magnesium-Based Biomaterials: An Overview.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Toward a molecular mechanism for the interaction of ATP with alpha-synuclein.Chemical science · 2023Article
- Search for lithium isotope effects in neuronal HT22 cells.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2023Article
- Prebiotic Chemistry of Phosphite: Mild Thermal Routes to Form Condensed-P Energy Currency Molecules Leading Up to the Formation of Organophosphorus Compounds.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Metals in Prebiotic Catalysis: A Possible Evolutionary Pathway for the Emergence of Metalloproteins.ACS omega · 2023Review
- Review
- On the potential roles of phosphorus in the early evolution of energy metabolism.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Review
- Magnesium and the Brain: A Focus on Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- The limits of metabolic heredity in protocells.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- A prebiotic basis for ATP as the universal energy currency.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- The Role of Magnesium in Pregnancy and in Fetal Programming of Adult Diseases.Biological trace element research · 2021Review
- Silicate-, Magnesium Ion-, and Urea-Induced Prebiotic Phosphorylation of Uridine via Pyrophosphate; Revisiting the Hot Drying Water Pool Scenario.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Promotion of protocell self-assembly from mixed amphiphiles at the origin of life.Nature ecology & evolution · 2019Article
- Magnesium Is a Key Player in Neuronal Maturation and Neuropathology.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Review
- Acetyl Phosphate as a Primordial Energy Currency at 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 · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Magnesium plays a special role in biochemistry because of its ability to coordinate six oxygen atoms efficiently in its first coordination shell. Such oxygen atoms may be part of one or two charged oxyanions, which means that Mg²⁺ can, for instance, tie together two different phosphate groups that are located at distance from each other in a macromolecule, and in this way be responsible for the folding of molecules like RNA. This property of Mg²⁺ also helps the stabilization of diphosphate and triphosphate groups of nucleotides, as well as promoting the condensation of orthophosphate to oligophosphates, like pyrophosphate and trimetaphosphate. Borates, on the other hand, are known to promote the formation of nucleobases and carbohydrates, ribose in particular, which is yet another constituent of nucleotides. The oldest borate minerals that we find on Earth today are magnesium borates. Dissolved borate stabilizes pentose sugars by forming complexes with cis-hydroxyl groups. In the furanose form of ribose, the preferential binding occurs to the 2 and 3 carbon, leaving the 5 carbon free for phosphorylation. The central role of Mg²⁺ in the function of ribozymes and its 'archaic' position in ribosomes, and the fact that magnesium generally has coordination properties different from other cations, suggests that the inorganic chemistry of magnesium had a key position in the first chemical processes leading to the origin and early evolution of life.
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