Journal ArticleDOI
Why nature chose phosphates
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TLDR
Stable, negatively charged phosphates react under catalysis by enzymes; organic chemists, who can only rarely use enzymatic catalysis for their reactions, need more highly reactive intermediates than phosphates.Abstract:
Phosphate esters and anhydrides dominate the living world but are seldom used as intermediates by organic chemists. Phosphoric acid is specially adapted for its role in nucleic acids because it can link two nucleotides and still ionize; the resulting negative charge serves both to stabilize the diesters against hydrolysis and to retain the molecules within a lipid membrane. A similar explanation for stability and retention also holds for phosphates that are intermediary metabolites and for phosphates that serve as energy sources. Phosphates with multiple negative charges can react by way of the monomeric metaphosphate ion PO3- as an intermediate. No other residue appears to fulfill the multiple roles of phosphate in biochemistry. Stable, negatively charged phosphates react under catalysis by enzymes; organic chemists, who can only rarely use enzymatic catalysis for their reactions, need more highly reactive intermediates than phosphates.read more
Citations
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Evidence for life on Earth before 3,800 million years ago.
Stephen J. Mojzsis,Gustaf Arrhenius,Kevin D. McKeegan,T. M. Harrison,Allen P. Nutman,Clark R.L. Friend +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, ion-microprobe measurements of the carbon-isotope composition of carbonaceous inclusions within grains of apatite (basic calcium phosphate) from the oldest known sediment sequences a approx. 3,800 Myr-old banded iron formation from the Isua supracrustal belt, West Greenland and a similar formation from Akilia island that is possibly older than 3,850 Myr.
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Anomeric-oxygen activation for glycoside synthesis: the trichloroacetimidate method.
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Template-directed Synthesis of a Genetic Polymer in a Model Protocell
Sheref S. Mansy,Jason P. Schrum,Mathangi Krishnamurthy,Sylvia Tobe,Douglas A. Treco,Jack W. Szostak +5 more
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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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TL;DR: It is argued that the evolution of the genetic apparatus must have required the abiotic formation of macromolecules capable of residue-by-residue replication, and suggests that polynucleotides were present even in the most primitive ancestors of contemporary organisms.