Catalyzed Synthesis of Zinc Clays by Prebiotic Central Metabolites
How primordial metabolic networks such as the reverse tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle and clay mineral catalysts coevolved remains a mystery in the puzzle to understand the origin of life. While prebiotic reactions from the rTCA cycle were accomplished via photochemistry on semiconductor minerals, t...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Nature Publishing Group
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110019 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-7530 |
| _version_ | 1811084820898381824 |
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| author | Zhou, Ruixin Basu, Kaustuv Hartman, Hyman Matocha, Christopher J. Sears, S. Kelly Vali, Hojatollah Guzman, Marcelo I. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Zhou, Ruixin Basu, Kaustuv Hartman, Hyman Matocha, Christopher J. Sears, S. Kelly Vali, Hojatollah Guzman, Marcelo I. |
| author_sort | Zhou, Ruixin |
| collection | MIT |
| description | How primordial metabolic networks such as the reverse tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle and clay mineral catalysts coevolved remains a mystery in the puzzle to understand the origin of life. While prebiotic reactions from the rTCA cycle were accomplished via photochemistry on semiconductor minerals, the synthesis of clays was demonstrated at low temperature and ambient pressure catalyzed by oxalate. Herein, the crystallization of clay minerals is catalyzed by succinate, an example of a photoproduced intermediate from central metabolism. The experiments connect the synthesis of sauconite, a model for clay minerals, to prebiotic photochemistry. We report the temperature, pH, and concentration dependence on succinate for the synthesis of sauconite identifying new mechanisms of clay formation in surface environments of rocky planets. The work demonstrates that seeding induces nucleation at low temperatures accelerating the crystallization process. Cryogenic and conventional transmission electron microscopies, X-ray diffraction, diffuse reflectance Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, and measurements of total surface area are used to build a three-dimensional representation of the clay. These results suggest the coevolution of clay minerals and early metabolites in our planet could have been facilitated by sunlight photochemistry, which played a significant role in the complex interplay between rocks and life over geological time. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:58:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/110019 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:58:06Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1100192022-10-01T12:15:15Z Catalyzed Synthesis of Zinc Clays by Prebiotic Central Metabolites Zhou, Ruixin Basu, Kaustuv Hartman, Hyman Matocha, Christopher J. Sears, S. Kelly Vali, Hojatollah Guzman, Marcelo I. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Hartman, Hyman How primordial metabolic networks such as the reverse tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle and clay mineral catalysts coevolved remains a mystery in the puzzle to understand the origin of life. While prebiotic reactions from the rTCA cycle were accomplished via photochemistry on semiconductor minerals, the synthesis of clays was demonstrated at low temperature and ambient pressure catalyzed by oxalate. Herein, the crystallization of clay minerals is catalyzed by succinate, an example of a photoproduced intermediate from central metabolism. The experiments connect the synthesis of sauconite, a model for clay minerals, to prebiotic photochemistry. We report the temperature, pH, and concentration dependence on succinate for the synthesis of sauconite identifying new mechanisms of clay formation in surface environments of rocky planets. The work demonstrates that seeding induces nucleation at low temperatures accelerating the crystallization process. Cryogenic and conventional transmission electron microscopies, X-ray diffraction, diffuse reflectance Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, and measurements of total surface area are used to build a three-dimensional representation of the clay. These results suggest the coevolution of clay minerals and early metabolites in our planet could have been facilitated by sunlight photochemistry, which played a significant role in the complex interplay between rocks and life over geological time. 2017-06-19T18:57:39Z 2017-06-19T18:57:39Z 2017-04 2016-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2045-2322 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110019 Zhou, Ruixin et al. “Catalyzed Synthesis of Zinc Clays by Prebiotic Central Metabolites.” Scientific Reports 7.1 (2017): n. pag. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-7530 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-00558-1 Scientific Reports Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Nature Publishing Group Nature |
| spellingShingle | Zhou, Ruixin Basu, Kaustuv Hartman, Hyman Matocha, Christopher J. Sears, S. Kelly Vali, Hojatollah Guzman, Marcelo I. Catalyzed Synthesis of Zinc Clays by Prebiotic Central Metabolites |
| title | Catalyzed Synthesis of Zinc Clays by Prebiotic Central Metabolites |
| title_full | Catalyzed Synthesis of Zinc Clays by Prebiotic Central Metabolites |
| title_fullStr | Catalyzed Synthesis of Zinc Clays by Prebiotic Central Metabolites |
| title_full_unstemmed | Catalyzed Synthesis of Zinc Clays by Prebiotic Central Metabolites |
| title_short | Catalyzed Synthesis of Zinc Clays by Prebiotic Central Metabolites |
| title_sort | catalyzed synthesis of zinc clays by prebiotic central metabolites |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110019 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-7530 |
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