ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America1998
Biochemical evolution. I. Polymerization On internal, organophilic silica surfaces of dealuminated zeolites and feldspars.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1998. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed.
- On the emergence of metabolism: the evolution of proteins that powered life.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Mineral-Mediated Oligoribonucleotide Condensation: Broadening the Scope of Prebiotic Possibilities on the Early Earth.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The Formation of RNA Pre-Polymers in the Presence of Different Prebiotic Mineral Surfaces Studied by Molecular Dynamics Simulations.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Tracing the Primordial Chemical Life of Glycine: A Review from Quantum Chemical Simulations.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Clays and the Origin of Life: The Experiments.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Prebiotic Peptide Bond Formation Through Amino Acid Phosphorylation. Insights from Quantum Chemical Simulations.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
- Role of Mineral Surfaces in Prebiotic Chemical Evolution. In Silico Quantum Mechanical Studies.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Review
- Chance, necessity and the origins of life: a physical sciences perspective.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2017Article
- Toy trains, loaded dice and the origin of life: dimerization on mineral surfaces under periodic drive with Gaussian inputs.Royal Society open science · 2017Article
- Thermal Condensation of Glycine and Alanine on Metal Ferrite Surface: Primitive Peptide Bond Formation Scenario.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2017Article
- The Astrobiology Primer v2.0.Astrobiology · 2016Review
- A Prebiotic Chemistry Experiment on the Adsorption of Nucleic Acids Bases onto a Natural Zeolite.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2015Article
- Evolutionary selection of enzymatically synthesized semiconductors from biomimetic mineralization vesicles.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2012Article
- Oligomerization of glycine and alanine catalyzed by iron oxides: implications for prebiotic chemistry.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2012Article
- Adsorption of adenine and thymine on zeolites: FT-IR and EPR spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry and SEM studies.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2012Article
- Energetic selection of topology in ferredoxins.PLoS computational biology · 2012Article
- Field-Control, Phase-Transitions, and Life's Emergence.Frontiers in physiology · 2012Article
- Adsorption of ribose nucleotides on manganese oxides with varied mn/o ratio: implications for chemical evolution.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2011Article
- Origins of saccharide-dependent hydration at aluminate, silicate, and aluminosilicate surfaces.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2011Article
- Mineral surfaces, geochemical complexities, and the origins of life.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2010Review
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Abstract
Catalysis at mineral surfaces might generate replicating biopolymers from simple chemicals supplied by meteorites, volcanic gases, and photochemical gas reactions. Many ideas are implausible in detail because the proposed mineral surfaces strongly prefer water and other ionic species to organic ones. The molecular sieve silicalite (Union Carbide; = Al-free Mobil ZSM-5 zeolite) has a three-dimensional, 10-ring channel system whose electrically neutral Si-O surface strongly adsorbs organic species over water. Three -O-Si tetrahedral bonds lie in the surface, and the fourth Si-O points inwards. In contrast, the outward Si-OH of simple quartz and feldspar crystals generates their ionic organophobicity. The ZSM-5-type zeolite mutinaite occurs in Antarctica with boggsite and tschernichite (Al-analog of Mobil Beta). Archean mutinaite might have become de-aluminated toward silicalite during hot/cold/wet/dry cycles. Catalytic activity of silicalite increases linearly with Al-OH substitution for Si, and Al atoms tend to avoid each other. Adjacent organophilic and catalytic Al-OH regions in nanometer channels might have scavenged organic species for catalytic assembly into specific polymers protected from prompt photochemical destruction. Polymer migration along weathered silicic surfaces of micrometer-wide channels of feldspars might have led to assembly of replicating catalytic biomolecules and perhaps primitive cellular organisms. Silica-rich volcanic glasses should have been abundant on the early Earth, ready for crystallization into zeolites and feldspars, as in present continental basins. Abundant chert from weakly metamorphosed Archaean rocks might retain microscopic clues to the proposed mineral adsorbent/catalysts. Other framework silicas are possible, including ones with laevo/dextro one-dimensional channels. Organic molecules, transition-metal ions, and P occur inside modern feldspars.
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