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From Earth's Primitive Atmosphere to Chiral Peptides – The Origin of Precursors for Life
Author(s) -
Plankensteiner Kristof,
Reiner Hannes,
Rode Bernd M.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
chemistry and biodiversity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.427
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1612-1880
pISSN - 1612-1872
DOI - 10.1002/cbdv.200490093
Subject(s) - abiogenesis , astrobiology , atmosphere (unit) , chemistry , earth (classical element) , pillar , biomolecule , early earth , amino acid , chemical evolution , biochemistry , biology , physics , stars , structural engineering , astronomy , engineering , mathematical physics , thermodynamics
To re‐enact the long way to the origin of life with today's chemical methods, many steps have to be investigated in the light of a primordial scenario deduced from geochemical research. After the formation of our planet and its atmosphere, prebiotic chemical evolution started its course with the formation of the first building blocks for the formation of biomolecules. In the case of proteins, those building blocks were amino acids that had to be formed in the primitive atmosphere, and then had to react to peptides and proteins as the main pillar of first life. In this paper, we describe the processes in the primordial atmosphere according to contemporary geochemical knowledge leading to the synthesis of amino acids until the formation of homochiral peptides, and, thus, show a plausible pathway towards the origin of life.