Abstract
Carbonaceous chondrites are a primitive group of meteorites, which contain abundant organic material and provide a unique natural record of prebiotic chemical evolution. This material comprises a varied suite of soluble organic compounds that are similar, sometimes identical, to those found in the biosphere, such as amino acids, carboxylic acids, and sugar derivatives. Some amino acids of this suite also show L-enantiomeric excesses, and suggest the possibility they may have contributed to terrestrial homochirality by direct input of meteoritic material to the early Earth. This optical activity appears to be limited to the subgroup of α-methyl amino acids which, although not common in the extant biosphere, would have been well suited to provide the early earth with both enantiomeric excesses and means for their amplification by subsequent chemical evolution. We can also envision this exogenous delivery of carbonaceous material by meteorites and comets as having coincided with the endogenous formation of prebiotic precursors and influenced their evolution by complementary reactions or catalysis.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altman, E., Altman, K. H., Nebel, K. and Mutter, M.: 1988, Conformational Studies on Host-Guest Peptides Containing Chiral a-Methyl-a-Amino Acids, Int. J. Protein Res. 32, 344.
Bada, J. L., Cronin, J. R., Ho, M.-S., Kvenvolden, K. A., Lawless, J. G., Miller, S. L., Orò, J. and Steinberg, S.: 1983, On the Reported Optical Activity of Amino Acids in the Murchison Meteorite, Nature 301, 494.
Bada, J. L. and Miller, S. L. 1987, Racemization and the Origin of Optically Active Organic Compounds in Living Systems, Biosystems 20, 21–26.
Balavoine, G., Moradpour, A. and Kagan, H. B.: 1974, Preparation of Chiral Compounds with High Optical Purity by Irradiation with Circularly Polarized Light, a Model Reaction for the Prebiotic Generation of Optical Activity, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 96, 5152–5158.
Bonner, W. A.: 1991, The Origin and Amplification of Biomolecular Chirality, Origins Life 21, 59.
Chyba, C. F. and Sagan, C.: 1992, Endogenous Production, Exogenous Delivery, and Impact-Shock Synthesis of Organic Molecules: An Inventory for the Origins of Life, Nature 355, 125.
Cody, G., O'D Alexander, C. M. and Tera, F.: 2002, Solid State (1H and 13C) NMR Spectroscopy of the Insoluble Organic Residue in the Murchison Meteorite: A Self-Consistent Quantitative Analysis, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 66, 1851–1865.
Cronin, J. R. and Chang, S.: 1993, Organic Matter in Meteorites: Molecular and Isotopic Analyses of the Murchison Meteorite, in J. M. Greenberg et al. (eds.), The Chemistry of Life's Origins, Kluwer, pp. 209–258.
Cronin J. R. and Pizzarello, S.: 1997, Enantiomeric Excesses in Meteoritic Amino Acids, Science 275, 951–955.
Cronin, J. R., Pizzarello, S. and Frye, J. S.: 1987, 13C NMR Spectroscopy of Insoluble Carbon in Carbonaceous Chondrites, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 51, 299–303.
Cronin, J. R., Pizzarello, S. and Cruikshank, D. P.: 1988, Organic Matter in Carbonaceous Chondrites, Planetary Satellites, Asteroids and Comets, in J. F. Kerridge and M. S. Matthews (eds.), Meteorites and the Early Solar System, Univ. of Arizona Press, pp. 819–857.
Delsemme, A. H.: 1992, Cometary Origin of Carbon, Nitrogen, and Water on the Earth, Origins Life 21, 279–298.
Dodd, R. T.: 1986, Thunderstones and Shooting Stars, Harvard University Press, pp. 4–9.
Drake, M. J. and Righter, M.: 2002, Determining the Composition of the Earth, Nature 416, 39–44.
Engel, M. H. and Nagy, B.: 1982, Distribution and Enantiomeric Composition of Amino Acids of the Murchison Meteorite, Nature 296, 837.
Engel, M. H. and Macko, S. A.: 1997, Isoptopic Evidence for Extraterrestrial non Racemic Amino Acids in the Murchison Meteorite, Nature 389, 265.
Formaggio, F., Crisma, M., Bonora, G. M., Pantano, M., Valle, G., Toniolo, C., Aubry, A., Bayeul, D. and Kamphuis, J.: 1995, R-Isovaline Homopeptides Adopt the Left-Handed 310-Helical Structure, Peptide Research 8, 6–14.
Gardinier, A., Derenne, S., Robert, F., Behar, F., Largeau, C. and Maquet, J.: 2000, Solid State CP/MAS 13C NMR of the Insoluble Organic Matter of the Orgueil and Murchison Meteorites: Quantitative Study, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 184, 9–21.
Gilmour, I., Pearson, K. V. and Sephton, M. A.: 2001, Analysis of Tagish Lake Macromolecular Organic Material, Lunar Planet. Sci. 32, #1993.
Hayatsu, R., Winans, R. E., Scott R. G., McBeth, R. L., Moore, L. P. and Studier, M. H.: 1980, Phenolic Ethers in the Organic Polymer of the Murchison Meteorite, Science 207, 1202–1204.
Kerridge, J. F., Chang, S. and Shipp, R.: 1987, Isotopic Characterization of Kerogen-Like Material in the Murchison Carbonaceous Chondrite, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 51, 2527–2540.
Kvenvolden, K., Lawless, J., Pering, K., Peterson, E., Flores, J., Ponnamperuma, C., Kaplan, J. R. and Moore, C.: 1970, Evidence of Extraterrestrial Amino Acids and Hydrocarbons in the Murchison Meteorite, Nature 228, 923.
Miller, S. L. 1955, Production of some Organic Compounds under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions, J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 77, 2351–2361.
Morbidelli, A., Chambers, J., Lunine, J. I., Petit, J. M., Rober, F., Valsecchi, G. B. and Cyrk, E.: 2000, Source Regions and Time Scales for the Delivery of Water to the Earth, Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 35, 1309–1320.
Owen, T., Cess, R. D. and Ramanathan, V.: 1979, Enhanced CO2 Greenhouse to Compensate for Reduced Solar Luminosity on Early Earth, Nature 277, 640–641.
Peltzer, E. T. and Bada, J. L.: 1978, α-Hydroxycarboxylic Acids in the Murchison Meteorite, Nature 272, 443–444.
Pizzarello, S.: 2002, Catalytic Syntheses of Amino Acids: Significance for Nebular and Planetary Chemistry, Lunar Planet. Sci. 33, #1236.
Pizzarello, S. and Cronin, J. R.: 1998, On the Reported Non Racemic Alanine from the Murchison Meteorite — An Analytical Perspective, Nature 394, 236.
Pizzarello, S. and Cronin, J. R.: 2000, Non Racemic Amino Acids in the Murchison and Murray Meteorites, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 64, 329–338.
Pizzarello, S. and Cooper, G.W.: 2001, Molecular and Chiral Analyses of some Protein Amino Acid Derivatives in the Murchison and Murray Meteorites, Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 36, 897–909.
Pizzarello, S. and Huang, Y.: 2002, Molecular and Isotopic Analyses of Tagish Lake Alkyl Dicarboxylic Acids, Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 37, 687–696.
Pizzarello, S., Huang, Y., Becker, L., Poreda, R. J., Nieman, R. A., Cooper, G. and Williams, M.: 2001, The Organic Content of the Tagish Lake Meteorite, Science 293, 2236–2239.
Pizzarello, S., Zolensky, M. and Turk, K.: 2003, Non-Racemic Isovaline in the Murchison Meteorite: Chiral Distribution and Mineral Association, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 67, 1589–1595.
Reisse, J. and Cronin, J. R.: Chirality and the Origin of Homochirality, in M. Gargaud et al. (eds.), The Footsteps of Life, Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, Pessac, in press.
Rubenstein, E., Bonner, W. A., Noyes, H. P. and Brown, G. S.: 1983, Supernovae and Life, Nature 306, 118.
Sephton, M. A., Pillinger, C. T. and Gilmour, I.: 1999, Aromatic Moieties in Meteoritic Macromolecular Materials: Analyses by Hydrous Pyrolysis and δ13C of Individual Compounds, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 64, 321–328.
Shock, E. L.: 1992, Hydrothermal Organic Synthesis Experiments, in N. G. Holm (ed.), Marine Hydrothermal Systems and the Origin of Life Origins Life 22, 135–146.
Simoneit, B. R. T.: 1995, Evidence for Organic Synthesis in High Temperature Aqueous Media-Facts and Prognosis, Origins Life 25, 119–140.
Wood, J. A. and Chang, S. (eds.): 1985, The Cosmic Hystory of the Biogenic Elements, NASA SP-476, pp. 5–9.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pizzarello, S. Chemical Evolution and Meteorites: An Update. Orig Life Evol Biosph 34, 25–34 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ORIG.0000009826.76353.de
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ORIG.0000009826.76353.de