ArticlePloS one2017
Organic compounds in fluid inclusions of Archean quartz-Analogues of prebiotic chemistry on early Earth.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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10 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- From Meteorites to Membrane Rafts: Ganglioside-Incorporating Prebiotic Vesicles and the Emergence of Membrane Domain Organization.The Journal of membrane biology · 2026Article
- Chemical Routes to Primitive Membranes: Prebiotic Lipid Formation at the Origin of Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Origin of Life in the Early Continental Crust: A Comprehensive Model.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Effects of Activation Barriers on Quenching to Stabilize Prebiotic Chemical Systems.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Aliphatic Aldehydes in the Earth's Crust-Remains of Prebiotic Chemistry?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Spontaneous Formation of Functional Structures in Messy Environments.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Membrane Structure Obtained in an Experimental Evolution Process.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Water is a preservative of microbes.Microbial biotechnology · 2022Article
- Unique Solid Phase Microextraction Sampler Reveals Distinctive Biogeochemical Profiles among Various Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Molecular Evolution in a Peptide-Vesicle System.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The origin of life is still an unsolved mystery in science. Hypothetically, prebiotic chemistry and the formation of protocells may have evolved in the hydrothermal environment of tectonic fault zones in the upper continental crust, an environment where sensitive molecules are protected against degradation induced e.g. by UV radiation. The composition of fluid inclusions in minerals such as quartz crystals which have grown in this environment during the Archean period might provide important information about the first organic molecules formed by hydrothermal synthesis. Here we present evidence for organic compounds which were preserved in fluid inclusions of Archean quartz minerals from Western Australia. We found a variety of organic compounds such as alkanes, halocarbons, alcohols and aldehydes which unambiguously show that simple and even more complex prebiotic organic molecules have been formed by hydrothermal processes. Stable-isotope analysis confirms that the methane found in the inclusions has most likely been formed from abiotic sources by hydrothermal chemistry. Obviously, the liquid phase in the continental Archean crust provided an interesting choice of functional organic molecules. We conclude that organic substances such as these could have made an important contribution to prebiotic chemistry which might eventually have led to the formation of living cells.
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