Scientific efforts aimed at reconstructing the beginnings of life
Formamide-based prebiotic chemistry is a reconstruction of the beginnings of life on Earth, assuming that formamide could accumulate in sufficiently high amounts to serve as the building block and reaction medium for the synthesis of the first biogenicmolecules.[1]
The combinatorial power of carbon is manifested in the composition of the molecular populations detected in circum- and interstellar media (see the Astrochemistry.net[16] web site). The number and the complexity of carbon-containing molecules are significantly higher than those of inorganic compounds, presumably all over the universe. One of the most abundant C-containing three-atoms molecule observed in space is hydrogen cyanide (HCN).[17] The chemistry of HCN has thus attracted attention in origin of life studies since the earliest times, and the laboratory synthesis of adenine from HCN under presumptive prebiotic conditions was reported as early as 1961.[18] The intrinsic limit of HCN stems from its high reactivity, which leads in turn, to instability and the difficulty associated with its concentration and accumulation in unreacted form.[19] The “Warm Little Pond” in which life is supposed to have started, as imagined by Charles Darwin[20][21] and re-elaborated by Alexander Oparin,[22] had most likely to reach sufficiently high concentrations to start creating the next levels of complexity. Hence the necessity of a derivative of HCN that is sufficiently stable to survive for time periods extended enough to allow its concentration in the actual physico-chemical settings, but that is sufficiently reactive to originate new compounds in prebiotically plausible environments.[19] Ideally, this derivative should be able to undergo reactions in various directions, without prohibitively high energy barriers, thus allowing the production of different classes of potentially prebiotic compounds. Formamide fulfils all these requirements and, due to its significantly higher boiling point (210 °C), enables chemical synthesis in a much broader temperature range than water.[1][23]
^ abSaladino, R.; Botta, G.; Pino, S.; Costanzo, G.; Di Mauro, E. (2012). "Genetics first or metabolism first? The formamide clue". Chem. Soc. Rev. 41 (16): 5526–5565. doi:10.1039/c2cs35066a. PMID22684046.
^Schutte, W.A.; Boogert, A.C.A.; Tielens, A.; Whittet, D.C.B.; Gerakines, P.A.; Chiar, J.E.; Ehrenfreund, P.; Greenberg, J.M.; van Dishoeck, E.F.; de Graauw, T. (1999). "Weak ice absorption features at 7.24 and 7.41 MU M in the spectrum of the obscured young stellar object W 33A". Astron. Astrophys. 343 (3): 966–976. Bibcode:1999A&A...343..966S.
^Bockelee-Morvan, D.; Lis, D.C.; Wink, J.E.; Despois, D.; Crovisier, J.; Bachiller, R.; Benford, D.J.; Biver, N.; Colom, P.; Davies, J.K.; Gerard, E.; Germain, B.; Houde, M.; Mehringer, D.; Moreno, R.; Paubert, G.; Phillips, T.G.; Rauer, H. (2000). "New molecules found in comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) - Investigating the link between cometary and interstellar material". Astron. Astrophys. 353 (3): 1101–1114. Bibcode:2000A&A...353.1101B.
^Despois, D.; Crovisier, J.; Bockele-Morvan, D.; Biver, N. (2002). Lacoste, H. (ed.). Proceedings of the Second European Workshop on Exo-Astrobiology, ESA-SP Vol. 518. Noordwijk: Esa Publications Division C/O Estec. pp. 123–127. ISBN929092828X.
^Lis, D.C.; Mehringer, D.M.; Benford, D.; Gardner, M.; Phillips, T.G.; Bockelee-Morvan, D.; Biver, N.; Colom, P.; Crovisier, J.; Despois, D.; Rauer, H. (1997). "New molecular species in comet C/1995O1(Hale-Bopp) observed with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory". Earth Moon Planets. 78 (1–3): 13–20. Bibcode:1997EM&P...78...13L. doi:10.1023/a:1006281802554. S2CID51862359.
^Hudson, R.L.; Moore, M.H. (2004). "Reactions of nitriles in ices relevant to Titan, comets, and the interstellar medium: formation of cyanate ion, ketenimines, and isonitriles". Icarus. 172 (2): 466–478. Bibcode:2004Icar..172..466H. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2004.06.011.
^Koike, T.; Kaneko, T.; Kobayashi, K.; Miyakawa, S.; Takano, Y. (2003). "Formation of organic compounds from simulated Titan atmosphere: perspectives of the Cassini mission". Biol. Sci. Space. 17 (3): 188–189. PMID14676367.
^Kröcher, O.; Elsener, M.; Jacob, E. (2009). "A model gas study of ammonium formate, methanamide and guanidinium formate as alternative ammonia precursor compounds for the selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides in diesel exhaust gas". Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 88 (1–2): 66–82. doi:10.1016/j.apcatb.2008.09.027.
^Cernicharo, J. (2011). Gargaud, M.; Amils, R.; Cernicharo Quintanilla, J.; Henderson Cleaves, J.; Irvine, W. M.; Pinti, D.; Viso, M. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Berlin: Springer Verlag. p. 783-783. ISBN978-3-642-11271-3.