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PREBIOTIC CHEMISTRY

Prebiotic metabolism gets a boost

Nature Chemistry volume 12, pages 982–985 (2020)Cite this article

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It’s generally assumed that primitive forms of cellular life arose from nucleic acids and peptides compartmentalized within vesicles — all underpinned by a non-enzymatic protometabolism. Three studies now provide new insights into the ancient chemistry that may have supported early biology.

All life is a result of metabolism. A complex set of reaction networks produces the suite of biomolecules, such as phospholipids, peptides and nucleic acids, without which life could not exist. Metabolism requires a continual resupply of energy to enable critical reactions to proceed away from equilibrium. What’s more, these cellular metabolic networks are run by enzymes, which would not have existed on early Earth prior to life’s emergence. So then how could this complex chemistry arise in the first place? To address this question, prebiotic chemists have explored non-enzymatic pathways for production of these biomolecules under conditions that are conceivably consistent with an early-Earth environment, and represent various stages along the progression from non-life, to protolife, to life as we recognize it today. In this issue of Nature Chemistry, three studies1,2,3 demonstrate such non-enzymatic chemistry that point towards some possible mechanisms, which may have operated at various points along life’s progressive emergence.

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Fig. 1: Potential protometabolic pathways.

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  1. School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Albert C. Fahrenbach & Quoc Phuong Tran

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  1. Albert C. Fahrenbach
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  2. Quoc Phuong Tran
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Correspondence to Albert C. Fahrenbach.

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Fahrenbach, A.C., Tran, Q.P. Prebiotic metabolism gets a boost. Nat. Chem. 12, 982–985 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-020-00567-0

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