Open AccessPEPTIDE FORMATION MEDIATED BY HYDROGEN CYANIDE TETRAMER: A POSSIBLE PREBIOTIC PROCESS
Author(s) -
Sherwood Chang,
José Juan Alvarado Flores,
Cyril Ponnamperuma
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.64.3.1011
Subject(s) - tetramer , hydrogen cyanide , chemistry , amino acid , condensation , peptide , dipeptide , cyanide , aqueous solution , stereochemistry , organic chemistry , biochemistry , enzyme , physics , thermodynamics
Chemical evolution on the primitive earth must have involved condensation of α-amino acids to peptides. Under aqueous conditions consistent with current conceptions of primordial waters, heating glycerine with the hydrogen cyanide tetramer, diaminomaleonitrile, yields dipeptide. If nitrogen was cycled through primordial waters as cyanide, peptide synthesis by stepwise tetramer-mediated condensation of α-amino acids would have been a plausible process.