Aldehyde Troika driving protometabolism in CO world

抄録

Photochemistry is important for prebiotic synthesis on early Earth and early Mars (Ueno et al., 2024; Koyama et al., 2024; Watanabe & Ozaki, 2024). Formaldehyde (HCHO) has been known to be produced via CO by the UV chemistry of CO2 atmosphere (Pinto et al., 1980), though the HCHO is not an only product (Zang et al., 2022). We report our systematic experiments demonstrating that various organic compounds (aldehydes, sugars, sugar acids, hydroxy acids, keto acids, dicarboxylic acids and fatty acids) are produced by solar-like UV irradiation to CO+H2O±CO2. Furthermore, the product mixture reacts with ammonia to form amino acids, imidazole and other heterocyclic nitrogen compounds. The reaction network to produce key building blocks of life could be driven by continuous supply of three aldehydes (HCHO, (CHO)2, and CH3CHO: Troika) produced from CO in reducing or neutral atmospheres.