Products Cited in Publications Worldwide Prebiotic Roles of Formaldehyde as an Activating Agent and a Building Block in Solid-State Peptide Modification

Prebiotic Roles of Formaldehyde as an Activating Agent and a Building Block in Solid-State Peptide Modification

Thuan, Jamie C; Koirala, Anuja; Pirez, James; Ohata, Jun

DOI:

Abstract

Signal transduction by gaseous small molecules is an essential process in modern living systems, where the gasotransmitters relay cellular signals to bio(macro)molecules through covalent bond formation. However, the origin or a primordial version of such signaling events in abiotic worlds has been poorly understood to date. Through examination of chemical reactivities between formaldehyde and cyclic dipeptide/diketopiperazine derivatives in prebiotically relevant solid-state environments, this study demonstrates that the gaseous small molecule may serve not only as a mere building block for the abiotic construction of biomolecules but also as an activating agent that transforms the inert peptide into reactive, prebiotically important chemical species. In addition, superiority of solid-state reactions or mechanochemistry to solution-based reaction conditions described in this article may be an indication of potential significance of the mechanical force-induced chemistry for chemical evolution, in particular for abiotic emergence of polypeptides.

Keywords

prebiotic chemistry ; chemical evolution ; mechanochemistry ; formaldehyde ; diketopiperazine ; dehydroalanine ; peptide

Purchased from AmBeed

A1578573027-05-295%

1,4-Diacetylpiperazine-2,5-dione

10.0/250mg

Detail

A29622223409-30-597%

cis-3,6-Bis(hydroxymethyl)piperazine-2,5-dione

37.0/100mg

Detail