電離放射線が駆動する化学進化

抄録

 Chemical evolution, starting from simple compounds that eventually transform into complex mixtures, is a theme long recognized to be of fundamental importance to origins of life research. Ionizing radiation on simple and small molecules, such as hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and acetonitorile (CH₃CN), is proposed to be one of the geochemically plausible mechanism driving multiple reactions yielding prebiotic precursors essential to emergence of life on early-Earth. Water radiolysis forming radicals, proton, and solvated electron also assists developing a reaction network in a one-pot system. Radiolytic mechanisms on an experimental basis are reviewed. Particularly, proposed synthetic strategies and mechanisms of amino acids and nucleotides are presented.