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Christian de Duve (1991, 1994, 1995) proposed a Hadean “Thioester World” which should have preceded the succeeding RNA world. Thioester molecules were probably very common in the proposed “primordial organic soup”. Thioesters are formed when a ‘thiol’ joins a carboxylic acid (R′–COOH) under acidic and high temperature environmental conditions. The general form is written as an organic group (R) bonded with sulfur and hydrogen, hence R-SH. H2O is released in this process, and forms finally a thioester: R–S-CO–R′. The “Thioester World” represents a hypothetical very early stage in the origin of life that could have provided the energetic and catalytic framework of a protometabolic set of primitive chemical reactions, like in the transaction of molecular groups, and in Redox-reactions. Thioesters were probably involved in the formation of energy-rich phosphates via acylphosphates and pyrophosphates as precursor compounds. The thioester bond is a high-energy bond and probably...
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Bibliography
De Duve, C., 1991. Blueprint for a Cell: The Nature and Origin of Life. Burlington, NC: Carolina Biological Supply Company (Neil Patterson Publisher).
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Keefe, A. D., Newton, G. L., and Miller, S. L., (1995). A possible prebiotic synthesis of pantetheine, a precursor of coenzyme A. Nature, 373, 683–685.
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Reitner, J. (2011). Thioester World. In: Reitner, J., Thiel, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geobiology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9212-1_204
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