ArticleNature communications2017
Proton gradients and pH oscillations emerge from heat flow at the microscale.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Wearable solar fluidic system.Science advances · 2025Article
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- Trinucleotide substrates under pH-freeze-thaw cycles enable open-ended exponential RNA replication by a polymerase ribozyme.Nature chemistry · 2025Article
- Membraneless protocell confined by a heat flow.Nature physics · 2025Article
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- Perpetuating enzymatically induced spatiotemporal pH and catalytic heterogeneity of a hydrogel by nanoparticles.Chemical science · 2022Article
- Thermodynamic and Kinetic Sequence Selection in Enzyme-Free Polymer Self-Assembly inside a Non-equilibrium RNA Reactor.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Did Homocysteine Take Part in the Start of the Synthesis of Peptides on the Early Earth?Biomolecules · 2022Article
- Article
- Heat flows in rock cracks naturally optimize salt compositions for ribozymes.Nature chemistry · 2021Article
- Thermally Driven Membrane Phase Transitions Enable Content Reshuffling in Primitive Cells.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2021Article
- tRNA sequences can assemble into a replicator.eLife · 2021Article
- The challenge of intracellular temperature.Biophysical reviews · 2020Review
- Nucleic Acid Catalysis under Potential Prebiotic Conditions.Chemistry, an Asian journal · 2020Review
- Membraneless polyester microdroplets as primordial compartments at the origins of life.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Optical Tweezers: Phototoxicity and Thermal Stress in Cells and Biomolecules.Micromachines · 2019Review
- Modelling Bacteria-Inspired Dynamics with Networks of Interacting Chemicals.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
- Length-Selective Synthesis of Acylglycerol-Phosphates through Energy-Dissipative Cycling.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2019Article
- pH-Driven RNA Strand Separation under Prebiotically Plausible Conditions.Biochemistry · 2018Article
- Reply to Colussi: Microdroplet interfacial pH, the ongoing discussion.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Proton gradients are essential for biological systems. They not only drive the synthesis of ATP, but initiate molecule degradation and recycling inside lysosomes. However, the high mobility and permeability of protons through membranes make pH gradients very hard to sustain in vitro. Here we report that heat flow across a water-filled chamber forms and sustains stable pH gradients. Charged molecules accumulate by convection and thermophoresis better than uncharged species. In a dissociation reaction, this imbalances the reaction equilibrium and creates a difference in pH. In solutions of amino acids, phosphate, or nucleotides, we achieve pH differences of up to 2 pH units. The same mechanism cycles biomolecules by convection in the created proton gradient. This implements a feedback between biomolecules and a cyclic variation of the pH. The finding provides a mechanism to create a self-sustained proton gradient to drive biochemical reactions.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.