The chemistry of life's origin: A carbonaceous meteorite perspective

Accounts of Chemical Research

Volumn 39, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 231-237

  Pizzarello, Sandra ^a  

^a ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AMINO ACID; HYDROCARBON; ORGANIC COMPOUND;

ASTRONOMY; BIOGENESIS; CHEMISTRY; REVIEW;

AMINO ACIDS; BIOGENESIS; EVOLUTION, CHEMICAL; HYDROCARBONS; METEOROIDS; ORGANIC CHEMICALS;

EID: 33646471591     PISSN: 00014842     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1021/ar050049f     Document Type: Review

References (51)

1. Bohr, N. Light and Life. Nature 1933, 131, 457-459.
2. Weber, A. The sugar model: Catalysis by amines and amino acid products. Origins Life Evol. Biosphere 2001, 31, 71-86 and references therein.
3. For example, see: Orgel, L. E. The origin of life-how long did it take? Origins Life Evol. Biosphere 1998, 28, 91-96.
4. The Cosmic History of the Biogenic Elements; Wood, J. A., Chang, S., Eds.; NASA SP-476; National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Washington, DC, 1985; pp 5-9.
5. Pizzarello, S. Chemical Evolution and Meteorites: An Update. Origins Life Evol. Biosphere 2004, 34, 25-34.
6. Cronin J. R.; Chang S. Organic matter in meteorites: molecular and isotopic analyses of the Murchison meteorite. In The Chemistry of Life's Origins; Greenberg, J. M., Mendoza-Gómez, C. X., Pirronello, V., Eds.; Kluwer: The Netherlands, 1993; pp 209-258.
7. Botta, O.; Bada, J. L. Extraterrestrial organic compounds in meteorites. Surv. Geophys. 2002, 23, 411-465.
8. Sephton M. A. Organic compounds in carbonaceous meteorites. Nat. Prod. Rep. 2002, 19, 292-311.
9. Pizzarello, S.; Cooper, G. W.; Flynn, G. J. The Nature and Distribution of the Organic Material in Carbonaceous Chondrites and Interplanetary Dust Particles. In Meteorites and the Early Solar System II; Lauretta, D. S., McSween, H. Y., Eds.; University of Arizona Press: Tucson, Arizona; in press.
10. Mullie, F.; Reiss, J. Organic matter in Carbonaceous Chondrites. Top. Curr. Chem. 1987, 139, 83-117.
11. Kvenvolden, K.; Lawless, J.; Pering, K.; Peterson, E.; Flores, J.; Ponnamperuma, C.; Kaplan, J. R.; Moore, C. Evidence of extraterrestrial amino acids and hydrocarbons in the Murchison meteorite. Nature 1970, 228, 923-926.
12. Epstein, S.; Krishnamurthy, R. V.; Cronin, J. R.; Pizzarello, S.; Yuen, G. U. Unusual stable isotope ratios in amino acid and carboxylic acid extracts from the Murchison meteorite. Nature 1987, 326, 477-479.
13. Garvie, L. A. J.; Buseck, P. R. Nanosized carbon-rich grains in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 2004, 224, 431-439 and references therein.
14. Kelley, D. S.; Baross, J. A.; Delaney, J. R. Volcanoes, fluids, and life at mid-ocean ridge spreading centers. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2002, 30, 385-491.
15. 13C of individual compounds. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 2000, 64, 321-328.
16. th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, TX, 2005; The Lunar and Planetary Institute: Houston, TX, 2005; Abstract No. 1367 [CD-ROM].
17. Cronin, J. R.; Pizzarello, S. Enantiomeric Excesses in Meteoritic Amino Acids. Science 1997, 275, 951-955.
18. Engel, M. H.; Macko, S. A. Isotopic evidence for extraterrestrial non racemic amino acids in the Murchison meteorite. Nature 1997, 389, 265-268.
19. Pizzarello, S.; Zolensky, M.; Turk, K. A. Non racemic isovaline in the Murchison meteorite: chiral distribution and mineral association. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 2003, 67, 1589-1595.
20. Pizzarello, S.; Huang, Y. The deuterium enrichment of individual amino acids in carbonaceous meteorites: A case for the presolar distribution of biomolecules precursors. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 2005, 69, 599-605.
21. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory Web site (http://www.cv.nrao. edu/~awootten/allmols.html) provides a frequently updated list of interstellar and circumstellar molecules.
22. Loinard, S.; Castets, A.; Ceccarelli, C.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.; Faure, A.; Caux, E.; Duvert, G. Double deuterated molecular species in protostellar environments. Astron. Astrophys. 2000, 359, 1169-1174.
23. -4.
24. Briggs, M. H. Evidence of an extraterrestrial origin for some organic constituents of meteorites. Nature 1963, 197, 1290.
25. Clayton, R. N. Carbon isotope abundance meteoritic carbonates Science 1963, 140, 192-193.
26. Yuen, G. U.; Blair, N.; Des Marais, D. J.; Chang, S. Carbon isotopic composition of individual, low molecular weight hydrocarbons and monocarboxylic acids from the Murchison meteorite. Nature 1984, 307, 252-254.
27. Cronin, J. R.; Chang, S. Organic matter in meteorites: molecular and isotopic analyses of the Murchison meteorite. In The Chemistry of Life's Origins; Greenberg, J. M., Mendoza-Gomez, C. X., Pirronello, V., Eds.; Kluwer: The Netherlands, 1993; pp 209-258.
28. Pizzarello, S.; Huang, Y.; Fuller, M. The carbon isotopic distribution of Murchison amino acids. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 2004, 68, 4963-4969.
29. Huang, Y.; Wang, Y.; Alexandre, M. R.; Lee, T.; Rose-Petruck, C.; Fuller, M.; Pizzarello, S. Molecular and compound-specific isotopic characterization of monocarboxylic acids in carbonaceous meteorites. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 2005, 69, 1073-1084.
30. Pizzarello, S.; Feng, X.; Epstein, S.; Cronin, J. R. Isotopic analyses of nitrogenous compounds from the Murchison meteorite: Ammonia, amines, amino acids, and polar hydrocarbons. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 1994, 58, 5579-5587.
31. Yuen, G.; Cronin, J. R.; Blair, N. E.; Des Marais, D.; Chang, S. Isotopic composition of Murchison organic compounds: Intramolecular carbon isotopic fractionation of acetic acid. Simulation studies of cosmochemical organic syntheses. Fourth Symposium on Chemical Evolution and the Origin and Evolution of Life; Wharton, R. A., Jr., Anderson, D. T., Bzik, S. E., Rummel, J. H., Eds.; NASA SP 3129; National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Washington, DC, 1991; p 21.
32. Pizzarello, S.; Huang, Y. Molecular and isotopic analyses of Tagish Lake alkyl dicarboxylic acids. Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 2002, 37, 687-696 and references therein.
33. Ehrenfreund, P.; Charnley, S. B. Organic molecules in the interstellar medium, comets, and meteorites: A voyage from dark clouds to the early earth. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 2000, 38, 427-483.
34. Müller, D.; Pitsch, S.; Atsushi, K.; Wagner, E.; Wintner, E.; Eschenmoser, A.; Ohlofjgewidmet, G. Chemie von α-aminonitrilen. Aldomerisierung von glycolaldehyd-phosphat zu racemischen hexose-2,4,6- triphosphaten und (in gegenwart von formaldehyd) racemischen pentose-2,4-diphosphaten: rac-allose-2,4,6-triphosphat und rac-ribose-2,4- diphosphat sind die reaktion-shauptprodukte. Helv. Chim. Acta 1990, 73, 1410-1468.
35. Zubay, G. Studies on the lead-catalyzed synthesis of aldopentoses. Origins Life Evol. Biosphere 1998, 28, 13-26.
36. Ricardo, A.; Carrigan, M. A.; Olcott, A. N.; Benner, S. A. Borate minerals stabilize ribose. Science 2004, 303, 196.
37. Springsteen, G.; Joyce, G. F. Selective derivatization and sequestration of ribose from a prebiotic mix. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 9578-9583.
38. Quack, M. How important is parity violation for molecular and biomolecular Chirality? Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2002, 41, 4618-4630.
39. Rubenstein, E.; Bonner, W. A.; Noyes, H. P.; Brown, G. S. Supernovae and life. Nature 1983, 306, 118.
40. Balavoine, G.; Moradpour, A.; Kagan, H. B. 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. 1974, 96, 5152-5158. The extinction coefficients of D- and L-amino acids for UV CPL are not very different; substantial ee are achieved only as the reaction approaches completion and are expected to be lower than 9%.
41. Cronin, J. R.; Reisse, J. Chirality and the Origin of Homochirality. In Lectures in Astrobiology Vol. 1; Gargaud, M., Ed.; Springer-Verlag: Berlin, 2005; pp 473-514.
42. Jedwab, J. La magnétite de le metéorite d'Orgueil vue au microscope électronique a Balayage. Icarus 1971, 15, 319-340.
43. Hua, X.; Buseck, P. R. Unusual forms of magnetite in the Orgueil carbonaceous chondrite. Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 1998, 33, A215-A220.
44. Pizzarello, S.; Weber, A. L. Prebiotic amino acids as asymmetric catalysts. Science 2004, 303, 1151.
45. Pizzarello, S.; Weber, A. L. Stereospecific synthesis of chiral tetrose sugars from glycolaldehyde in water catalyzed by chiral peptides. Provisional application to U.S. patent office, 2005, filing no. 60/679,852.
46. Bada, J. L.; Miller, S. L. Racemization and the origin of optically active organic compounds in living organisms. BioSystems 1987, 20, 21-26.
47. Bonner, W. A. The origin and amplification of biomolecular chirality. Origins Life Evol. Biosphere 1991, 21, 59-111.
48. Bonner, W. A.; Blair, N. E.; Dirbas F. M. Experiments on the abiotic amplification of optical activity. Origins Life 1981, 11, 119-134.
49. Brack, A.; Spach, G. Enantiomer enrichment in early peptides. Origins Life 1981, 11, 135-142.
50. 10-helical structure. Pept. Res. 1995, 8, 6-14 and references therein.
51. Keller, J. W.; Baurick, K. B.; Rutt, G. C.; O'Malley, M. V.; Sonafrank, N. L.; Reynolds, R. A.; Ebbesson, L. O.; Vajos, F. F. Pseudomonas-cepacia 2,2-dialkylglycine decarboxylase- sequence and expression in Escherichia-coli of structural and repressor genes J. Biol. Chem. 1990, 265, 5531-5539.