ArticleScientific reports2020
A way to thioacetate esters compatible with non-oxidative prebiotic conditions.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sugars to Acids via Thioesters: A Computational Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- From Amino Acids to α-Keto Acids via β-Elimination and Transamination Initiates a Pathway to Prebiotic Reaction Networks.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2025Article
- Prebiotic formation of thioesters via cyclic anhydrides as a key step in the emergence of metabolism.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Rapid hydrolysis rates of thio- and phosphate esters constrain the origin of metabolism to cool, acidic to neutral environments.iScience · 2024Article
- Preliminary Free Energy Map of Prebiotic Compounds Formed from COLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The centrality of pyruvate oxidative decarboxylation into acetyl-CoA in current biochemistry is a strong argument for proposing that a similar reaction have been necessary for the development of an effective protometabolism on the primitive Earth. However, such a decarboxylation requires the use of an oxidant and a catalyst, today enzymatic. Based on the mechanisms of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and pyruvate-ferredoxin oxidoreductase, we propose that the initial mechanism involved disulfides and occurred via radicals. A first disulfide is obtained by reacting glyoxylate with hydrogen sulfide. It is then possible to produce a wide variety of other disulfides by exchange reactions. When reacted with pyruvate under UV light they give thioesters. This process requires no oxidant and is therefore compatible with what is known of the redox conditions of the early Earth. Neither does it require any catalyst. It could be the first way to acetyl thioesters, a way that was later improved by the introduction of catalysts, first minerals, then enzymes.
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Registered trials
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