Scientist Explores Autocatalytic Reactions in the Formose Pathway to Understand the Origins of Life
How did life begin? How did chemical reactions on the early Earth create complex, self-replicating structures that developed into living things as we know them? According to one school of thought, there was a kind of molecule called RNA (ribonucleic acid) that played a crucial role before the current era of DNA-based life. RNA can replicate itself and catalyze other chemical reactions. But RNA molecules themselves are made from smaller components called ribonucleotides.
Chemists like Quoc Phuong Tran are trying to recreate the chain of reactions required to form RNA at the dawn of life. This is a challenging task, considering that the chemical reaction that created ribonucleotides must have been able to happen in the messy, complicated environment found on our planet billions of years ago.
Tran has been studying whether “autocatalytic” reactions may have played a part in the formation of ribonucleotides. Autocatalytic reactions produce chemicals that encourage the same reaction to happen again, which means they can sustain themselves in a wide range of circumstances.
In their latest work, Tran and colleagues have integrated autocatalysis into a well-known chemical pathway for producing the ribonucleotide building blocks. This integration could have plausibly happened with the simple molecules and complex conditions found on the early Earth.
The Formose Reaction
Autocatalytic reactions play crucial roles in biology, from regulating heartbeats to forming patterns on seashells. The formose reaction, first discovered in 1861, is one of the best examples of an autocatalytic reaction that could have happened on the early Earth.
The formose reaction starts with one molecule of a simple compound called glycolaldehyde and ends with two. The mechanism relies on a constant supply of another simple compound called formaldehyde. A reaction between glycolaldehyde and formaldehyde makes a bigger molecule, splitting off fragments that feed back into the reaction and keep it going. However, once the formaldehyde runs out, the reaction stops, and the products start to degrade from complex sugar molecules into tar.
An Autocatalytic Twist in the Pathway to Ribonucleotides
In Tran’s study, they added another simple molecule called cyanamide to the formose reaction. This addition made it possible for some of the molecules made during the reaction to be “siphoned off” to produce ribonucleotides. While the reaction did not produce a large quantity of ribonucleotide building blocks, the ones it did produce are more stable and less likely to degrade.
The integration of the formose reaction and ribonucleotide production in this study is particularly interesting. Previous investigations studied each separately, reflecting how chemists usually think about making molecules. Chemists typically avoid complexity to maximize the quantity and purity of a product. However, this reductionist approach can prevent the investigation of dynamic interactions between different chemical pathways.
Autocatalysis in Industrial Applications
Autocatalysis also has industrial applications. When cyanamide is added to the formose reaction, another product produced is a compound called 2-aminooxazole, which is used in chemistry research and the production of many pharmaceuticals. If 2-aminooxazole can be made using the formose reaction, it could reduce the need for the expensive compound glycolaldehyde, cutting costs in pharmaceutical production processes.
Tran’s lab is currently optimizing this procedure, hoping to manipulate the autocatalytic reaction to make common chemical reactions cheaper and more efficient, and their pharmaceutical products more accessible.
In conclusion, Tran’s work sheds light on the intriguing integration of autocatalysis and the formose reaction in understanding the origins of life. His research not only contributes to the fundamental understanding of chemical pathways but also has potential industrial applications in making pharmaceutical production more cost-effective.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
