High frequency discharge experiment. I: Formation of organic compounds from methane and ammonia

N-carbamoyl-alpha-amino acids rather than free alpha-amino acids formation in the primitive hydrosphere: a novel proposal for the emergence of prebiotic peptides

Our previous kinetic and thermodynamic studies upon the reactional system HCHO/HCN/NH3 in aqueous solutions are completed. In the assumed prebiotic conditions of the primitive earth ([HCHO] and [HCN] near 1 g L-1, T = 25 degrees C, pH = 8, [NH3] very low), this system leads to 99.9% of alpha-hydroxyacetonitrile and 0.1% of alpha-aminoacetonitrile (precursor of the alpha-amino acid). The classical base-catalyzed hydration of nitriles, slow and not selective, can not modify significantly this proportion. On the contrary, we found two specific and efficient reactions of alpha-aminonitriles which shift the initial equilibrium in favor of the alpha-aminonitrile pathway. The first reaction catalyzed by formaldehyde generates alpha-aminoamides, precursors of alpha-aminoacids. The second reaction catalyzed by carbon dioxide affords hydantoins, precursors of N-carbamoyl-alpha-aminoacids. In the primitive hydrosphere, where the concentration in carbon dioxide was estimated to be higher than that of formaldehyde, the formation of hydantoins was consequently more efficient. The rates of hydrolysis of the alpha-aminoacetamide and of the hydantoin at pH 8 being very similar, the synthesis of the N-carbamoyl-alpha-amino acid seems then to be the fatal issue of the HCHO/HCN/NH3 system that nature used to perform its evolution. These N-protected alpha-amino acids offer new perspectives in prebiotic chemistry, in particular for the emergence of peptides on the prebiotic earth.

Prebiotic syntheses of purines and pyrimidines

The work done in many laboratories during the last two decades has confirmed that hydrogen cyanide and cyanoacetylene are the two major precursors for the prebiotic synthesis of purines and pyrimidines, respectively. Although several different pathways for the synthesis of purines have been described, they are all variations of the initial mechanism proposed by Oró and Kimball, where hydrogen cyanide leads first to the formation of a 4,5-di-substituted imidazole derivative, and then to the closing of the purine ring with a C1 compound. A number of experiments have shown that purines and pyrimidines can also be obtained from methane, ammonia (nitrogen), and water mixtures, provided an activating source of energy (radiation, electric discharges, etc.) is available. However, in this case the yields are lower by about two orders of magnitude because of the intermediate formation of hydrogen cyanide and cyanoacetylene. The latter two compounds have been found in interstellar space, Titan and other bodies of the solar system. They were probably present in the primordial parent bodies from the solar nebula in concentrations of 10(-2) to 10(-3) M as inferred from recent calculations by Miller and coworkers obtained for the Murchison meteorite. These concentrations should have been sufficient to generate relatively large amounts of purine and pyrimidine bases on the primitive Earth.