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Invited for the cover of this issue are the groups of César Menor-Salván, Facundo Fernández and Nicholas V. Hud at the University of Alcala and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The image depicts the authors contemplating the origin of pterins and guanosine nucleosides from a common precursor, with the art-gallery setting embodying their feeling that the common synthetic pathways of these molecules in both the prebiotic world and in biochemistry is a natural work of (chemical) art. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/chem.202200714., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The poor reactivity of insoluble phosphates, such as apatite-group minerals, has been a long-appreciated obstacle for proposed models of prebiotic organophosphate formation. This obstacle presents a significant challenge to the nascent development of an RNA world and other models for the origins of life on Earth. Herein, we demonstrate that a scenario based on the formation of a urea/ammonium formate/water (UAFW) eutectic solution leads to an increase in phosphorylation when compared to urea alone for phosphate sources of varying solubility. In addition, under evaporative conditions and in the presence of MgSO 4 , the UAFW eutectic mobilizes the phosphate sequestered in water-insoluble hydroxyapatite, giving rise to a marked increase in phosphorylation. These results suggest that the prebiotic concentrations of urea in a geologically plausible evaporitic environment could solve the problem of organic phosphorylation on a prebiotic Earth., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

The poor reactivity of insoluble phosphates, such as apatite-group minerals, has been a long-appreciated obstacle for proposed models of prebiotic organophosphate formation. This obstacle presents a significant challenge to the nascent development of an RNA world and other models for the origins of life on Earth. Herein, we demonstrate that a scenario based on the formation of a urea/ammonium formate/water (UAFW) eutectic solution leads to an increase in phosphorylation when compared to urea alone for phosphate sources of varying solubility. In addition, under evaporative conditions and in the presence of MgSO4, the UAFW eutectic mobilizes the phosphate sequestered in water-insoluble hydroxyapatite, giving rise to a marked increase in phosphorylation. These results suggest that the prebiotic concentrations of urea in a geologically plausible evaporitic environment could solve the problem of organic phosphorylation on a prebiotic Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of an autotrophic organism as the first living being on Earth leads to the hypothesis of a protometabolic, complex chemical system. In one of the main hypotheses, the first metabolic systems emerged from the interaction between sulfide minerals and/or soluble iron-sulfide complexes and fluids rich in inorganic precursors, which are reduced and derived from crustal or mantle activity. Within this context, the possible catalytic role of pyrrhotite, one of the most abundant sulfide minerals, in biomimetic redox and carbon fixation reactions was studied. Our results showed that pyrrhotite, under simulated hydrothermal conditions, could catalyze the pyruvate synthesis from lactate and that a dynamic system formed by coupling iron metal and iron-sulfur species in an electrochemical cell could promote carbon fixation from thioacetate esters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Two different simulation experiments of prebiotic synthesis were carried out in a CH4/N2/H2 atmosphere with spark discharge activation of aqueous aerosols and liquid water. In both cases, a hydrophilic tholin and a hydrophobic tholin were obtained. The methodology developed by our group for the characterisation of hydrophilic tholins [Ruiz-Bermejo, M., Menor-Salván, C., Mateo-Martí, E., Osuna-Esteban, S., Martín-Gago, J.A., Veintemillas-Verdaguer, S., 2008. Icarus 198, 232–241] was used in order to study the hydrophobic tholins. The gas precursors of the tholins from mixtures containing CH4, with and without H2, were studied. We propose that the formation of the hydrophobic tholins involves the formation of unsaturated oligomeric hydrocarbon chains from vinyl and acetylene monomers, as well as allene derivatives formed in the gas phase after the incorporation of polar groups into these hydrocarbon chains. Finally, we compare our results concerning hydrophobic tholins with HCN polymers, since it is generally suggested that the polymeric material formed in spark experiments are possible oligomers of HCN, and that Titan’s tholins could be poly-HCN. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Charles Darwin schwebte 1871 die spontane Bildung biologischer Moleküle “in warmen Tümpeln mit allen möglichen Ammoniak ‐ und Phosphatsalzen” vor. In der Zuschrift auf S. 13443 ff. untersuchen C. Menor ‐ Salván, N. V. Hud et al. die Möglichkeit dieses präbiotischen Szenarios. Wenn sie eine Lösung von Ammoniumformiat, Harnstoff und Epsomit (die gezeigten Magnesiumsulfatkristalle) erhitzten, bildete sich ein Eutektikum, das Phosphat aus unlöslichem Apatit freisetzte, was zur Phosphorylierung von Nucleosiden führte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]