ArticleLife (Basel, Switzerland)2016
Dry/Wet Cycling and the Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Prebiotic Polymer Synthesis.
Article in Life (Basel, Switzerland), 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers.
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Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed.
- Abiotic synthesis of RNase-resistant phosphodiester and pyrophosphate-linked polymers via thermodynamically controlled wet-dry cycling.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The master molecule that built biology: How water shaped the chemistry of life.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2026Review
- Experimental and Computational Simulation of the Prebiotic Peptide Bond Formation Driven by Wet-Dry Cycles and Gamma Ionizing Radiation: An Insight into Molecular Evolution.Journal of molecular evolution · 2026Article
- Chemical Routes to Primitive Membranes: Prebiotic Lipid Formation at the Origin of Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- G-quadruplexes self-assembled from nucleotide monomers as stable prepolymer scaffolds in aqueous environments.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- High-Yield Prebiotic Polymerization of 2',3'-Cyclic Nucleotides under Wet-Dry Cycling.ACS central science · 2025Article
- Prebiotic Peptide Synthesis: How Did Longest Peptide Appear?Journal of molecular evolution · 2025Review
- Biological Polymers: Evolution, Function, and Significance.Accounts of chemical research · 2025Article
- Origin of the RNA World in Cold Hadean Geothermal Fields Enriched in Zinc and Potassium: Abiogenesis as a Positive Fallout from the Moon-Forming Impact?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- On the Origin of Information Dynamics in Early Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Reciprocating thermochemical mediator of pre-biotic polymer decomposition on mineral surfaces.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- The Origin(s) of LUCA: Computer Simulation of a New Theory.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Groundwater-Driven Evolution of Prebiotic Alkaline Lake Environments.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Wet-dry cycles cause nucleic acid monomers to polymerize into long chains.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Alternative Pathways in Astrobiology: Reviewing and Synthesizing Contingency and Non-Biomolecular Origins of Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Qualitative Monitoring of Proto-Peptide Condensation by Differential FTIR Spectroscopy.ACS earth & space chemistry · 2024Article
- From the RNA-Peptide World: Prebiotic Reaction Conditions Compatible with Lipid Membranes for the Formation of Lipophilic Random Peptides in the Presence of Short Oligonucleotides, and More.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Cyclophospholipids Enable a Protocellular Life Cycle.ACS nano · 2023Article
- Decorated Vesicles as Prebiont Systems (a Hypothesis).Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2023Article
- Mineral-Mediated Oligoribonucleotide Condensation: Broadening the Scope of Prebiotic Possibilities on the Early Earth.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The endoergic nature of protein and nucleic acid assembly in aqueous media presents two questions that are fundamental to the understanding of life's origins: (i) how did the polymers arise in an aqueous prebiotic world; and (ii) once formed in some manner, how were they sufficiently persistent to engage in further chemistry. We propose here a quantitative resolution of these issues that evolved from recent accounts in which RNA-like polymers were produced in evaporation/rehydration cycles. The equilibrium Nm + Nn ↔ Nm+n + H₂O is endoergic by about 3.3 kcal/mol for polynucleotide formation, and the system thus lies far to the left in the starting solutions. Kinetic simulations of the evaporation showed that simple Le Châtelier's principle shifts were insufficient, but the introduction of oligomer-stabilizing factors of 5-10 kcal/mol both moved the process to the right and respectively boosted and retarded the elongation and hydrolysis rates. Molecular crowding and excluded volume effects in present-day cells yield stabilizing factors of that order, and we argue here that the crowded conditions in the evaporites generate similar effects. Oligomer formation is thus energetically preferred in those settings, but the process is thwarted in each evaporation step as diffusion becomes rate limiting. Rehydration dissipates disordered oligomer clusters in the evaporites, however, and subsequent dry/wet cycling accordingly "ratchets up" the system to an ultimate population of kinetically trappedthermodynamically preferred biopolymers.
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