ArticleNature2018
Abiotic synthesis of amino acids in the recesses of the oceanic lithosphere.
Article in Nature, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 244 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of minerals in prebiotic evolution: Implications for identifying worlds with the potential for life's origin.Fundamental research · 2026Review
- Intermediate stages in the origin of metabolism at a phosphorylating hydrothermal vent.Science advances · 2026Article
- Quantum Chemical Insights into the Dissociation of Phenol: Shedding Light on Impact Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Icy Moon Exploration.ACS earth & space chemistry · 2026Article
- Abiotic CONature communications · 2026Article
- Organic carbon recycling in subduction zones.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Abyssal hydrothermal alteration drives the evolution from simple alkanes to prebiotic molecular complexity.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Metallic molybdenum sulfide catalyses protometabolic carbon dioxide reaction networks under extreme conditions.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
- Entropy-Driven Amino Acid-Based Coacervates with Enzyme-Free Metabolism and Prebiotic Robustness.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Prebiotic organic compounds in samples of asteroid Bennu indicate heterogeneous aqueous alteration.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Organic geochemical evidence for life in Archean rocks identified by pyrolysis-GC-MS and supervised machine learning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Cultivating microbial communities from the serpentinite-hosted Prony Bay hydrothermal field on different carbon sources in hydrogen-fed bioreactors.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Reproducible Ala-Gly oligomerization catalyzed by the natural Borate colemanite in prebiotic conditions.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Nanometric and Hydrophobic Green Rust Minerals upon Exposure to Amino Acids and Nickel as Prerequisites for a Primitive Chemiosmosis.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Microbial ecology of serpentinite-hosted ecosystems.The ISME journal · 2025Review
- Detection of organic compounds in freshly ejected ice grains from Enceladus's ocean.Nature astronomy · 2025Article
- Order of amino acid recruitment into the genetic code resolved by last universal common ancestor's protein domains.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Order of amino acid recruitment into the genetic code resolved by Last Universal Common Ancestor's protein domains.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Unraveling abiotic organic synthesis pathways in the mafic crust of mid-ocean ridges.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Subsurface Microbial Colonization at Mineral-Filled Veins in 2-Billion-Year-Old Mafic Rock from the Bushveld Igneous Complex, South Africa.Microbial ecology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Abiotic hydrocarbons and carboxylic acids are known to be formed on Earth, notably during the hydrothermal alteration of mantle rocks. Although the abiotic formation of amino acids has been predicted both from experimental studies and thermodynamic calculations, its occurrence has not been demonstrated in terrestrial settings. Here, using a multimodal approach that combines high-resolution imaging techniques, we obtain evidence for the occurrence of aromatic amino acids formed abiotically and subsequently preserved at depth beneath the Atlantis Massif (Mid-Atlantic Ridge). These aromatic amino acids may have been formed through Friedel-Crafts reactions catalysed by an iron-rich saponite clay during a late alteration stage of the massif serpentinites. Demonstrating the potential of fluid-rock interactions in the oceanic lithosphere to generate amino acids abiotically gives credence to the hydrothermal theory for the origin of life, and may shed light on ancient metabolisms and the functioning of the present-day deep biosphere.
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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.