Pub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2022-09-08DOI: 10.1007/s11084-022-09628-5
Juan A Martínez Giménez, Rafael Tabares Seisdedos
The origin of the genetic code is probably the central problem of the studies on the origin of life. The key question to answer is the molecular mechanism that allows the association of the amino acids with their triplet codons. We proposed that the codon-anticodon duplex located in the acceptor stem of primitive tRNAs would facilitate the chemical reactions required to synthesize cognate amino acids from simple amino acids (glycine, valine, and aspartic acid) linked to the 3' acceptor end. In our view, various nucleotide-A-derived cofactors (with reactive chemical groups) may be attached to the codon-anticodon duplex, which allows group-transferring reactions from cofactors to simple amino acids, thereby producing the final amino acid. The nucleotide-A-derived cofactors could be incorporated into the RNA duplex (helix) by docking Adenosine (cofactor) into the minor groove via an interaction similar to the A-minor motif, forming a base triple between Adenosine and one complementary base pair of the duplex. Furthermore, we propose that this codon-anticodon duplex could initially catalyze a self-aminoacylation reaction with a simple amino acid. Therefore, the sequence of bases in the codon-anticodon duplex would determine the reactions that occurred during the formation of new amino acids for selective binding of nucleotide-A-derived cofactors.
{"title":"A Cofactor-Based Mechanism for the Origin of the Genetic Code.","authors":"Juan A Martínez Giménez, Rafael Tabares Seisdedos","doi":"10.1007/s11084-022-09628-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-022-09628-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The origin of the genetic code is probably the central problem of the studies on the origin of life. The key question to answer is the molecular mechanism that allows the association of the amino acids with their triplet codons. We proposed that the codon-anticodon duplex located in the acceptor stem of primitive tRNAs would facilitate the chemical reactions required to synthesize cognate amino acids from simple amino acids (glycine, valine, and aspartic acid) linked to the 3' acceptor end. In our view, various nucleotide-A-derived cofactors (with reactive chemical groups) may be attached to the codon-anticodon duplex, which allows group-transferring reactions from cofactors to simple amino acids, thereby producing the final amino acid. The nucleotide-A-derived cofactors could be incorporated into the RNA duplex (helix) by docking Adenosine (cofactor) into the minor groove via an interaction similar to the A-minor motif, forming a base triple between Adenosine and one complementary base pair of the duplex. Furthermore, we propose that this codon-anticodon duplex could initially catalyze a self-aminoacylation reaction with a simple amino acid. Therefore, the sequence of bases in the codon-anticodon duplex would determine the reactions that occurred during the formation of new amino acids for selective binding of nucleotide-A-derived cofactors.</p>","PeriodicalId":19614,"journal":{"name":"Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33447361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2022-08-12DOI: 10.1007/s11084-022-09626-7
Kenso Soai, Tsuneomi Kawasaki, Arimasa Matsumoto
Biological homochirality of essential components such as L-amino acids and D-sugars is prerequisite for the emergence, evolution and the maintenance of life. Implication of biological homochirality is described. Considerable interest has been focused on the origin and the process leading to the homochirality. Asymmetric autocatalysis with amplification of enantiomeric excess (ee), i.e., the Soai reaction, is capable to link the low ee induced by the proposed origins of chirality such as circularly polarized light and high ee of the organic compound. Absolute asymmetric synthesis without the intervention of any chiral factor was achieved in the Soai reaction.
l -氨基酸和d -糖等基本成分的生物同手性是生命出现、进化和维持的先决条件。描述了生物同手性的含义。人们对同手性的起源和形成过程一直很感兴趣。对映体过量(ee)扩增的不对称自催化,即Soai反应,能够将手性来源(如圆偏振光)和有机化合物的高ee诱导的低ee联系起来。在Soai反应中实现了无手性因子干预的绝对不对称合成。
{"title":"Asymmetric Autocatalysis as an Efficient Link Between the Origin of Homochirality and Highly Enantioenriched Compounds.","authors":"Kenso Soai, Tsuneomi Kawasaki, Arimasa Matsumoto","doi":"10.1007/s11084-022-09626-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-022-09626-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biological homochirality of essential components such as L-amino acids and D-sugars is prerequisite for the emergence, evolution and the maintenance of life. Implication of biological homochirality is described. Considerable interest has been focused on the origin and the process leading to the homochirality. Asymmetric autocatalysis with amplification of enantiomeric excess (ee), i.e., the Soai reaction, is capable to link the low ee induced by the proposed origins of chirality such as circularly polarized light and high ee of the organic compound. Absolute asymmetric synthesis without the intervention of any chiral factor was achieved in the Soai reaction.</p>","PeriodicalId":19614,"journal":{"name":"Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40692986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.1007/s11084-022-09629-4
Axel Brandenburg, David Hochberg
{"title":"Introduction to Origins of Biological Homochirality.","authors":"Axel Brandenburg, David Hochberg","doi":"10.1007/s11084-022-09629-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-022-09629-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19614,"journal":{"name":"Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9169486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2022-07-07DOI: 10.1007/s11084-022-09625-8
E R Lovyagina, B К Semin
The evolutionary origin of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) in the photosystem II (PSII) is still unclear, as is the nature of electron source for the photosystem before the OEC had appeared. Johnson et al. (in PNAS 110:11238, 2013) speculated that Mn(II) cations were the source of electrons for transitional photosystems. However, Archean oceans also contained Fe(II) cations at concentrations comparable or higher than that of Mn(II). Fe(II) cations can bind to the high-affinity (НА) Mn-binding site in the OEC (Semin et al. in Biochemistry 41:5854, 2002). Now we have investigated the competitive interaction of Mn(II) and Fe(II) cations with the HA site in the Mn-depleted PSII membranes (PSII[-Mn]). Fe cations, oxidized under illumination, bind strongly to the HA site and, thus, prevent the interaction of Mn(II) with this site. If the Mn(II) and Fe(II) cations, at relatively equal concentration, are simultaneously present in the buffer, together with PSII(-Mn) membranes, there is competition between these two cations for the binding site, which manifests itself in partial inhibition of the Mn(II) oxidation and the blocking of the HA site by Fe(II) cations. If the concentration of Fe(II) cations is several times higher than the concentration of Mn(II), the HA site is completely blocked and the oxidation of Mn(II) cations is inhibited; under saturating light, the effectiveness of this inhibitory effect increases. This may be due to the generation of H2O2 on the acceptor side of the photosystem, which significantly accelerates the rate of the turnover reaction of Mn(II) on the HA site.
光系统II (PSII)中氧进化复合体(OEC)的进化起源尚不清楚,在OEC出现之前光系统的电子源性质也不清楚。Johnson等人(发表在PNAS 110:11238, 2013)推测Mn(II)阳离子是过渡光系统的电子来源。然而,太古宙海洋也含有Fe(II)阳离子,其浓度与Mn(II)相当或更高。Fe(II)阳离子可以结合到OEC中高亲和力的mn结合位点(НА) (Semin et al. in Biochemistry 41:58 . 54, 2002)。现在,我们研究了Mn(II)和Fe(II)阳离子与贫Mn PSII膜(PSII[-Mn])中HA位点的竞争相互作用。铁离子在光照下被氧化,与HA位点强烈结合,从而阻止Mn(II)与该位点的相互作用。如果Mn(II)和Fe(II)阳离子以相对相等的浓度同时存在于缓冲液中,并与PSII(-Mn)膜一起存在,则这两个阳离子之间存在对结合位点的竞争,表现为部分抑制Mn(II)氧化和Fe(II)阳离子阻断HA位点。如果Fe(II)阳离子浓度比Mn(II)浓度高几倍,则HA位点被完全阻断,Mn(II)阳离子的氧化被抑制;在饱和光下,这种抑制作用的有效性增加。这可能是由于在光系统的受体侧产生H2O2,这显著加快了Mn(II)在HA位点上的周转反应速度。
{"title":"Competitive interaction of Mn(II) and Fe(II) cations with the high-affinity Mn-binding site of the photosystem II: evolutionary aspect.","authors":"E R Lovyagina, B К Semin","doi":"10.1007/s11084-022-09625-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-022-09625-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The evolutionary origin of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) in the photosystem II (PSII) is still unclear, as is the nature of electron source for the photosystem before the OEC had appeared. Johnson et al. (in PNAS 110:11238, 2013) speculated that Mn(II) cations were the source of electrons for transitional photosystems. However, Archean oceans also contained Fe(II) cations at concentrations comparable or higher than that of Mn(II). Fe(II) cations can bind to the high-affinity (НА) Mn-binding site in the OEC (Semin et al. in Biochemistry 41:5854, 2002). Now we have investigated the competitive interaction of Mn(II) and Fe(II) cations with the HA site in the Mn-depleted PSII membranes (PSII[-Mn]). Fe cations, oxidized under illumination, bind strongly to the HA site and, thus, prevent the interaction of Mn(II) with this site. If the Mn(II) and Fe(II) cations, at relatively equal concentration, are simultaneously present in the buffer, together with PSII(-Mn) membranes, there is competition between these two cations for the binding site, which manifests itself in partial inhibition of the Mn(II) oxidation and the blocking of the HA site by Fe(II) cations. If the concentration of Fe(II) cations is several times higher than the concentration of Mn(II), the HA site is completely blocked and the oxidation of Mn(II) cations is inhibited; under saturating light, the effectiveness of this inhibitory effect increases. This may be due to the generation of H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> on the acceptor side of the photosystem, which significantly accelerates the rate of the turnover reaction of Mn(II) on the HA site.</p>","PeriodicalId":19614,"journal":{"name":"Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40567042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2022-07-07DOI: 10.1007/s11084-022-09622-x
Ulrich F Müller, Jamie Elsila, Dustin Trail, Saurja DasGupta, Claudia-Corina Giese, Craig R Walton, Zachary R Cohen, Tomislav Stolar, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, Timothy W Lyons, Karyn L Rogers, Loren Dean Williams
The Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments (PCE3) Consortium is a community of researchers seeking to understand the origins of life on Earth and in the universe. PCE3 is one of five Research Coordination Networks (RCNs) within NASA's Astrobiology Program. Here we report on the inaugural PCE3 workshop, intended to cross-pollinate, transfer information, promote cooperation, break down disciplinary barriers, identify new directions, and foster collaborations. This workshop, entitled, "Building a New Foundation", was designed to propagate current knowledge, identify possibilities for multidisciplinary collaboration, and ultimately define paths for future collaborations. Presentations addressed the likely conditions on early Earth in ways that could be incorporated into prebiotic chemistry experiments and conceptual models to improve their plausibility and accuracy. Additionally, the discussions that followed among workshop participants helped to identify within each subdiscipline particularly impactful new research directions. At its core, the foundational knowledge base presented in this workshop should underpin future workshops and enable collaborations that bridge the many disciplines that are part of PCE3.
{"title":"Frontiers in Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments.","authors":"Ulrich F Müller, Jamie Elsila, Dustin Trail, Saurja DasGupta, Claudia-Corina Giese, Craig R Walton, Zachary R Cohen, Tomislav Stolar, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, Timothy W Lyons, Karyn L Rogers, Loren Dean Williams","doi":"10.1007/s11084-022-09622-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-022-09622-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments (PCE<sub>3</sub>) Consortium is a community of researchers seeking to understand the origins of life on Earth and in the universe. PCE<sub>3</sub> is one of five Research Coordination Networks (RCNs) within NASA's Astrobiology Program. Here we report on the inaugural PCE<sub>3</sub> workshop, intended to cross-pollinate, transfer information, promote cooperation, break down disciplinary barriers, identify new directions, and foster collaborations. This workshop, entitled, \"Building a New Foundation\", was designed to propagate current knowledge, identify possibilities for multidisciplinary collaboration, and ultimately define paths for future collaborations. Presentations addressed the likely conditions on early Earth in ways that could be incorporated into prebiotic chemistry experiments and conceptual models to improve their plausibility and accuracy. Additionally, the discussions that followed among workshop participants helped to identify within each subdiscipline particularly impactful new research directions. At its core, the foundational knowledge base presented in this workshop should underpin future workshops and enable collaborations that bridge the many disciplines that are part of PCE<sub>3</sub>.</p>","PeriodicalId":19614,"journal":{"name":"Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9261198/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40567043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2022-07-07DOI: 10.1007/s11084-022-09624-9
R Fernando Martínez, Louis A Cuccia, Cristóbal Viedma, Pedro Cintas
By paraphrasing one of Kipling's most amazing short stories (How the Leopard Got His Spots), this article could be entitled "How Sugars Became Homochiral". Obviously, we have no answer to this still unsolved mystery, and this perspective simply brings recent models, experiments and hypotheses into the homochiral homogeneity of sugars on earth. We shall revisit the past and current understanding of sugar chirality in the context of prebiotic chemistry, with attention to recent developments and insights. Different scenarios and pathways will be discussed, from the widely known formose-type processes to less familiar ones, often viewed as unorthodox chemical routes. In particular, problems associated with the spontaneous generation of enantiomeric imbalances and the transfer of chirality will be tackled. As carbohydrates are essential components of all cellular systems, astrochemical and terrestrial observations suggest that saccharides originated from environmentally available feedstocks. Such substances would have been capable of sustaining autotrophic and heterotrophic mechanisms integrating nutrients, metabolism and the genome after compartmentalization. Recent findings likewise indicate that sugars' enantiomeric bias may have emerged by a transfer of chirality mechanisms, rather than by deracemization of sugar backbones, yet providing an evolutionary advantage that fueled the cellular machinery.
{"title":"On the Origin of Sugar Handedness: Facts, Hypotheses and Missing Links-A Review.","authors":"R Fernando Martínez, Louis A Cuccia, Cristóbal Viedma, Pedro Cintas","doi":"10.1007/s11084-022-09624-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-022-09624-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>By paraphrasing one of Kipling's most amazing short stories (How the Leopard Got His Spots), this article could be entitled \"How Sugars Became Homochiral\". Obviously, we have no answer to this still unsolved mystery, and this perspective simply brings recent models, experiments and hypotheses into the homochiral homogeneity of sugars on earth. We shall revisit the past and current understanding of sugar chirality in the context of prebiotic chemistry, with attention to recent developments and insights. Different scenarios and pathways will be discussed, from the widely known formose-type processes to less familiar ones, often viewed as unorthodox chemical routes. In particular, problems associated with the spontaneous generation of enantiomeric imbalances and the transfer of chirality will be tackled. As carbohydrates are essential components of all cellular systems, astrochemical and terrestrial observations suggest that saccharides originated from environmentally available feedstocks. Such substances would have been capable of sustaining autotrophic and heterotrophic mechanisms integrating nutrients, metabolism and the genome after compartmentalization. Recent findings likewise indicate that sugars' enantiomeric bias may have emerged by a transfer of chirality mechanisms, rather than by deracemization of sugar backbones, yet providing an evolutionary advantage that fueled the cellular machinery.</p>","PeriodicalId":19614,"journal":{"name":"Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40569061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-10DOI: 10.1007/s11084-022-09621-y
T. Buhse, J. Micheau
{"title":"Spontaneous Emergence of Transient Chirality in Closed, Reversible Frank-like Deterministic Models","authors":"T. Buhse, J. Micheau","doi":"10.1007/s11084-022-09621-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-022-09621-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19614,"journal":{"name":"Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77719296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-20DOI: 10.1007/s11084-022-09620-z
D. Zlenko, A. M. Zanin, S. Stovbun
{"title":"Molecular Self-Assembly as a Trigger of Life Origin and Development","authors":"D. Zlenko, A. M. Zanin, S. Stovbun","doi":"10.1007/s11084-022-09620-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-022-09620-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19614,"journal":{"name":"Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72544902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-05DOI: 10.1007/s11084-022-09619-6
S. Janković, Ana Katić, M. 'Cirkovi'c
{"title":"Gaia as Solaris: An Alternative Default Evolutionary Trajectory","authors":"S. Janković, Ana Katić, M. 'Cirkovi'c","doi":"10.1007/s11084-022-09619-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-022-09619-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19614,"journal":{"name":"Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76671432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The secular debate on the origin of life on our planet represents one of the open challenges for the scientific community. In this endeavour, chemistry has a pivotal role in disclosing novel scenarios that allow us to understand how the formation of simple organic molecules would be possible in the early primitive geological ages of Earth. Amino acids play a crucial role in biological processes. They are known to be formed in experiments simulating primitive conditions and were found in meteoric samples retrieved throughout the years. Understanding their formation is a key step for prebiotic chemistry. Following this reasoning, we performed a computational investigation over 100'000 structural isomers of natural amino acids. The results we have found suggest that natural amino acids are among the most thermodynamically stable structures and, therefore, one of the most probable ones to be synthesised among their possible isomers.
{"title":"Computational Study of the Stability of Natural Amino Acid isomers.","authors":"Stefano Crespi, Dhanalakshmi Vadivel, Alfredo Bellisario, Daniele Dondi","doi":"10.1007/s11084-021-09615-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-021-09615-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The secular debate on the origin of life on our planet represents one of the open challenges for the scientific community. In this endeavour, chemistry has a pivotal role in disclosing novel scenarios that allow us to understand how the formation of simple organic molecules would be possible in the early primitive geological ages of Earth. Amino acids play a crucial role in biological processes. They are known to be formed in experiments simulating primitive conditions and were found in meteoric samples retrieved throughout the years. Understanding their formation is a key step for prebiotic chemistry. Following this reasoning, we performed a computational investigation over 100'000 structural isomers of natural amino acids. The results we have found suggest that natural amino acids are among the most thermodynamically stable structures and, therefore, one of the most probable ones to be synthesised among their possible isomers.</p>","PeriodicalId":19614,"journal":{"name":"Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39593312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}