Reactivity of alanylalanine diastereoisomers in neutral and acid aqueous solutions: a versatile stereoselectivity

Formation of Diastereoisomeric Piperazine-2,5-dione from DL-Alanine in the Presence of Olivine and Water

DL-Alanine (Ala) was heated with/without powdered olivine and water at 120 °C for 8 days to investigate the formation of the diastereoisomers of piperazine-2,5-dione (diketopiperazine, DKP). When only DL-Ala was heated with a small amount of water, 3.0 % of DL-Ala changed to cis- and trans-DKP after 8 days. DKPs were not detected after heating when no water was added. The presence of a small amount of water is important factor controlling peptide production rates under thermal conditions. When DL-Ala was heated with olivine powder for 8 days, the yields of cis- and trans-DKP were 6.8 and 4.9 %, respectively. The high yield of cis-DKP compared with trans-DKP was attributed to greater thermal stability of cis-DKP. After heating for 8 days, the diastereoisomeric excess of cis-DKP without olivine was 7.3 %, whereas a much higher value of 16.3 % was obtained in the presence of olivine. Taken together, these results show that olivine is not only an efficient catalyst for the formation of DKPs but that it also play a significant role in determining the diastereoisomer selectivity of these cyclic dipeptides.

The Activation of Free Dipeptides Promoted by Strong Activating Agents in Water Does not Yield Diketopiperazines

The activation of dipeptides was studied in the perspective of the abiotic formation of oligopeptides of significant length as a requirement for secondary structure formation. The formation of piperazin-2,5-diones (DKP), previously considered as a dead end when activating free dipeptides, was shown in this work to be efficiently suppressed when using strong activating agents (e.g., carbodiimides). This behaviour was explained by the fast formation of a 5(4H)-oxazolone intermediate at a rate that exceeds the time scale of the rotation of the peptide bond from the predominant trans-conformation into the cis-isomer required for DKP formation. No DKP was observed when using strong activating agents whereas phosphate mixed anhydrides or moderately activated esters were observed to predominantly yield DKP. The DKP side-reaction no longer constitutes a drawback for the C-terminus elongation of peptides. These results are considered as additional evidence that pathways involving strong activation are required to drive the emergence of living entities rather than close to equilibrium processes.

Pathways for the formation and evolution of peptides in prebiotic environments

α-Amino acids are easily accessible through abiotic processes and were likely present before the emergence of life. However, the role they could have played in the process remains uncertain. Chemical pathways that could have brought about features of self-organization in a peptide world are considered in this review and discussed in relation with their possible contribution to the origin of life. An overall scheme is proposed with an emphasis on possibilities that may have led to dynamically stable far from equilibrium states. This analysis defines new lines of investigation towards a better understanding of the contribution of the systems chemistry of amino acids and peptides to the emergence of life.