Abstract
For more than 50 years scientists who study prebiotic chemistry have been dealing with chemical evolution as it could have possibly taken place on the primordial Earth. Since we will never know what processes have really taken place around 3.8 to 4 billion years ago we can only come up with plausible reaction pathways that work well in an early Earth scenario as indicated by geochemists. In our work we have investigated the plausibility of one particularly important branch of prebiotic chemistry, the formation of amino acids, by electric discharge in a neutral atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water vapour above liquid water. We have found yields of various amino acids under different temperature conditions, with and without sodium chloride in a simulated primordial lake or ocean within extremely short reaction times compared to the timespan available for prebiotic evolution.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- HPLC:
-
high performance liquid chromatography
- ODS:
-
octadecyl silyl
- PMT:
-
photomultiplier tube
- SIPF:
-
Salt-induced Peptide Formation
- UV:
-
ultraviolet
References
Miller, S.L., A production of amino acids under possible primitive earth conditions, Science, 117 (1953) 528–529.
Holland, H.D., The Chemistry of the Atmosphere and Oceans, Wiley, New York, 1978.
Levine, J.S., Augustsson, T.R. and Natarajan, M., The prebiological paleoatmosphere: Stability and composition, Origins Life, 12 (1982) 245–259.
Kasting, J.F. and Ackerman, T.P., Climatic consequences of very high carbon dioxide levels in the earth's early atmosphere, Science, 234 (1986) 1383–1385.
Walker, J.C.G., Carbon dioxide on the early earth, Origins Life Evol. Biosphere, 16 (1985) 117–127.
Kasting, J.F., Earth's earliest atmosphere, Science, 259 (1993) 920–926.
Delano, J.W., Redox history of the earth's interior since apprx. 3900 Ma: Implications for prebiotic molecules, Origins Life Evol. Biosphere, 31 (2001) 311–341.
Plankensteiner, K., Reiner, H., Schranz, B. and Rode, B.M., Prebiotic formation of amino acids in a neutral atmosphere by electric discharge, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 43 (2004) 1886–1888.
Plankensteiner, K., Reiner, H., Schranz, B. and Rode, B.M., Präbiotische Bildung von Aminosäuren in einer neutralen Atmosphäre durch elektrische Funkenentladungen, Angew. Chem., 116 (2004) 1922–1924.
Bahadur, K., Ranganayaki, S. and Santamaria, L., Photosynthesis of amino acids from paraformaldehyde involving the fixation of nitrogen in the presence of colloidal molybdenum oxide as catalyst, Nature, 182 (1958) 1668.
Harada, K. and Fox, S.W., Thermal synthesis of natural amino acids from a postulated primitive terrestrial atmosphere, Nature, 201 (1964) 335–336.
Oró, J., Synthesis of organic molecules by physical agencies, J. Brit. Interplanet. Soc., 21 (1968) 12–25.
Bar-Nun, A., Bar-Nun, N., Bauer, S.H. and Sagan, C., Shock synthesis of amino acids in simulated primitive environments, Science, 168 (1970) 470–473.
Sagan, C. and Khare, B.N., Long-wavelength ultraviolet photoproduction of amino acids on the primitive earth, Science, 173 (1971) 417–420.
Yoshino, D., Hayatsu, R. and Anders, E., Origin of organic matter in the early solar system. III. Amino acids. Catalytic synthesis, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 35 (1971) 927–938.
Fox, S.W. and Dose, K., Molecular Evolution and the Origin of Life, Freeman and Company, San Francisco, 1972.
Lawless, J.G. and Boynton, C.G., Thermal synthesis of amino acids from a simulated primitive atmosphere, Nature, 243 (1973) 405–407.
Schlesinger, G. and Miller, S.L., Prebiotic synthesis in atmospheres containing CH4, CO, and CO2. I. Amino acids, J. Mol. Evol., 19 (1983) 376–382.
Kobayashi, K., Tsuchiya, M., Oshima, T. and Yanagawa, H., Abiotic synthesis of amino acids and imidazole by proton irradiation of simulated primitive earth atmospheres, Origins Life Evol. Biosphere, 20 (1990) 99–109.
Miyakawa, S., Yamanashi, H., Kobayashi, K., Cleaves, H.J. and Miller, S.L., Prebiotic synthesis from CO atmospheres: Implications for the origins of life, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 99 (2002) 14628–14631.
Woese, C.R., A proposal concerning the origin of life on the planet earth, J. Mol. Evol., 13 (1979) 95–101.
Ausich, W.I. and Lane, N.G., Life of the Past, Prentice Hall Earth Science Series, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1998.
Knauth, L.P., Salinity history of the earth's early ocean, Nature, 395 (1998) 554–555.
Morse, J.W. and MacKenzie, F.T., Hadean ocean carbonate geochemistry, Aquat. Geochem., 4 (1998) 301–319.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Plankensteiner, K., Reiner, H. & Rode, B.M. Amino acids on the rampant primordial Earth: Electric discharges and the hot salty ocean. Mol Divers 10, 3–7 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11030-006-7009-0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11030-006-7009-0