From amino acid mixtures to peptides in liquid sulphur dioxide on early Earth.

The formation of peptide bonds is one of the most important biochemical reaction steps. Without the development of structurally and catalytically active polymers, there would be no life on our planet. However, the formation of large, complex oligomer systems is prevented by the high thermodynamic barrier of peptide condensation in aqueous solution. Liquid sulphur dioxide proves to be a superior alternative for copper-catalyzed peptide condensations. Compared to water, amino acids are activated in sulphur dioxide, leading to the incorporation of all 20 proteinogenic amino acids into proteins. Strikingly, even extremely low initial reactant concentrations of only 50 mM are sufficient for extensive peptide formation, yielding up to 2.9% of dialanine in 7 days. The reactions carried out at room temperature and the successful use of the Hadean mineral covellite (CuS) as a catalyst, suggest a volcanic environment for the formation of the peptide world on early Earth.

Mineral-mediated carbohydrate synthesis by mechanical forces in a primordial geochemical setting.

The formation of carbohydrates represents an essential step to provide building blocks and a source of chemical energy in several models for the emergence of life. Formaldehyde, glycolaldehyde and a basic catalyst are the initial components forming a variety of sugar molecules in the cascade-type multi-step formose reaction. While numerous side reactions and even deterioration can be observed in aqueous media, selective prebiotic sugar formation is feasible in solid-state, mechanochemical reactions and might have occurred in early geochemistry. However, the precise role of different basic catalysts and the influence of the atmospheric conditions in the solid-state formose reaction remain unknown. Here we show, that in a primordial scenario the mechanochemical formose reaction is capable to form monosaccharides with a broad variety of mineral classes as catalysts with only minute amounts of side products such as lactic acid or methanol, independent of the atmospheric conditions. The results give insight into recent findings of formose sugars on meteorites and offer a water-free and robust pathway for monosaccharides independent of the external conditions both for the early Earth or an extra-terrestrial setting.

Prebiotic Sugar Formation Under Nonaqueous Conditions and Mechanochemical Acceleration.

Monosaccharides represent one of the major building blocks of life. One of the plausible prebiotic synthesis routes is the formose network, which generates sugars from C1 and C2 carbon sources in basic aqueous solution. We report on the feasibility of the formation of monosaccharides under physical forces simulated in a ball mill starting from formaldehyde, glycolaldehyde, DL-glyceraldehyde as prebiotically available substrates using catalytically active, basic minerals. We investigated the influence of the mechanic energy input on our model system using calcium hydroxide in an oscillatory ball mill. We show that the synthesis of monosaccharides is kinetically accelerated under mechanochemical conditions. The resulting sugar mixture contains monosaccharides with straight and branched carbon chains as well as decomposition products. In comparison to the sugar formation in water, the monosaccharides formed under mechanochemical conditions are more stable and selectively synthesized. Our results imply the possibility of a prebiotic monosaccharide origin in geochemical environments scant or devoid of water promoted by mechanochemical forces such as meteorite impacts or lithospheric activity.

Development of an advanced derivatization protocol for the unambiguous identification of monosaccharides in complex mixtures by gas and liquid chromatography.

The separation and analysis of complex monosaccharide mixtures is highly challenging and requires typically carefully selected derivatization procedures to avoid changes in the sample composition. Here we present in a comparative study several single- and two-step derivatization approaches for LC and GC separations using a set of reference compounds ranging from C1 building block such as formaldehyde to C6 monosaccharides. Separation conditions have been optimized resulting in the simultaneous separation of 15 unbranched aldoses. By parallel derivatization using hydroxylamine hydrochloride (HACl)/ N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) and O-ethylhydroxylamine hydrochloride (EtOx)/ N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) and comparative GC measurements we developed a protocol for the unambiguous identification and separation of aldoses, ketoses, alditols and aldonic acids, which commonly occur in complex sugar mixtures as reaction by-products or decomposition products. In particular this procedure helps to deconvolute overlapping analytes and facilitates quantification. Additionally, the method presented here has been investigated in regard to storage life, detection limits, quantification and MS analysis. The broad applicability of this method to different sample matrices is shown for the analysis of food samples and complex aldol reaction mixtures in the formose reaction, which is of great relevance in the context of the origin of life.

Attracting Enantiomers: Chiral Analytes That Are Simultaneously Shift Reagents Allow Rapid Screening of Enantiomeric Ratios by NMR Spectroscopy.

The rapid and direct determination of enantiomeric ratios is of increasing interest due to the significantly reduced effort compared to chromatographic methods and the large number of analytes, for instance in enantioselective catalysis. Current strategies include colorimetric assays, (a)chiral solvating reagents for NMR spectroscopy and metal complexes for CD sensing. We report the determination of enantiomeric ratios based on the self-induced diastereomeric anisochronism (SIDA) effect. Alanine derivatives that represent chiral products of enantioselective catalysis, such as the well-established hydrogenation of dehydroamino acids, were investigated. The SIDA effect was significantly enhanced by attachment of 3,5-dinitrobenzoyl π-π interactions sites. This simple modification enabled simultaneous determination of enantiomeric ratios and conversions by NMR spectroscopy.