ArticleScience advances2026
Intermediate stages in the origin of metabolism at a phosphorylating hydrothermal vent.
Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Nonenzymatic Analogue of the Biosynthesis of Pyridoxal Vitamers.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- Prebiotic aqueous reactions catalyzed by native nickel without hydrogen.The FEBS journal · 2026Article
- Protein folds and catalytic strategies at the origin of biological CO2 fixation.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- Life on Mars? The physiological perspective.Experimental physiology · 2026Article
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17 authors.
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Abstract
The origin of life required the emergence of metabolism, an autocatalytic network of enzymatic reactions that synthesize amino acids, nucleotides, and cofactors. At the origin of metabolism, there were no enzymes-how did it start? Empirical studies addressing early metabolic evolution are lacking. Harnessing protein structures for metabolic enzymes, we identify intermediate states in primordial metabolic assembly. We show that enzymatic metabolism in the universal common ancestor was incomplete, undergoing final assembly independently in the lineages leading to bacteria and archaea. Native transition metals-iron, cobalt, nickel, and palladium-served as the catalytic forerunners of both enzymes and cofactors at metabolic origin, while phosphite supplied energy, as it phosphorylates adenosine 5'-monophosphate to adenosine 5'-diphosphate and serine to phosphoserine using native metal catalysts in water. Phosphite and native metals occur in serpentinizing hydrothermal systems, identifying an energy-supplying, catalytic site of metabolic origin. Cofactors liberated nascent metabolism from native metal catalysts, engendering its autocatalytic state.
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