ArticleOrigins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life2018
Acetyl Phosphate as a Primordial Energy Currency at the Origin of Life.
Article in Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Intermediate stages in the origin of metabolism at a phosphorylating hydrothermal vent.Science advances · 2026Article
- Article
- Non-enzymatic coupling of protometabolic reactions with a prebiotic redox cofactor.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Prebiotic Roles of Formaldehyde as an Activating Agent and a Building Block in Solid-State Peptide Modification.ACS bio & med chem Au · 2025Article
- Bioenergetics evolution: the link between Earth's and Life's history.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Article
- Rapid hydrolysis rates of thio- and phosphate esters constrain the origin of metabolism to cool, acidic to neutral environments.iScience · 2024Article
- Pinpointing Conditions for a Metabolic Origin of Life: Underlying Mechanisms and the Role of Coenzymes.Accounts of chemical research · 2024Article
- Acetyl-CoA synthetase activity is enzymatically regulated by lysine acetylation using acetyl-CoA or acetyl-phosphate as donor molecule.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Primitive purine biosynthesis connects ancient geochemistry to modern metabolism.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Mild hydrolysis of chemically stable valerolactams by a biocatalytic ATP-dependent system fueled by metaphosphate.Green chemistry : an international journal and green chemistry resource : GC · 2024Article
- Bacteria employ lysine acetylation of transcriptional regulators to adapt gene expression to cellular metabolism.Nature communications · 2024Article
- The Effects of Temperature and Humidity Index on Growth Performance, Colon Microbiota, and Serum Metabolome of Ira Rabbits.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Prebiotic Synthesis of Aspartate Using Life's Metabolism as a Guide.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Biophysical Interactions Underpin the Emergence of Information in the Genetic Code.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Self-Similar Patterns from Abiotic Decarboxylation Metabolism through Chemically Oscillating Reactions: A Prebiotic Model for the Origin of Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 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
- A self-sustaining serpentinization mega-engine feeds the fougerite nanoengines implicated in the emergence of guided metabolism.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- On the potential roles of phosphorus in the early evolution of energy metabolism.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Metabolism is primed through the formation of thioesters via acetyl CoA and the phosphorylation of substrates by ATP. Prebiotic equivalents such as methyl thioacetate and acetyl phosphate have been proposed to catalyse analogous reactions at the origin of life, but their propensity to hydrolyse challenges this view. Here we show that acetyl phosphate (AcP) can be synthesised in water within minutes from thioacetate (but not methyl thioacetate) under ambient conditions. AcP is stable over hours, depending on temperature, pH and cation content, giving it an ideal poise between stability and reactivity. We show that AcP can phosphorylate nucleotide precursors such as ribose to ribose-5-phosphate and adenosine to adenosine monophosphate, at modest (~2%) yield in water, and at a range of pH. AcP can also phosphorylate ADP to ATP in water over several hours at 50 °C. But AcP did not promote polymerization of either glycine or AMP. The amino group of glycine was preferentially acetylated by AcP, especially at alkaline pH, hindering the formation of polypeptides. AMP formed small stacks of up to 7 monomers, but these did not polymerise in the presence of AcP in aqueous solution. We conclude that AcP can phosphorylate biologically meaningful substrates in a manner analogous to ATP, promoting the origins of metabolism, but is unlikely to have driven polymerization of macromolecules such as polypeptides or RNA in free solution. This is consistent with the idea that a period of monomer (cofactor) catalysis preceded the emergence of polymeric enzymes or ribozymes at the origin of life.
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