Chemical Reduction of Phosphate on the Primitive Earth
Tóm tắt
If phosphorus played a role in the origin of life, some means of concentrating micromolar levels of phosphate (derived from the calcium phosphate mineral apatite), must first have been available. Here we show that simulated (mini)lightning discharges in model prebiotic atmospheres, including only minimally reducing ones, reduce orthophosphates, including apatite, to produce substantial yields of phosphite. Electrical discharges associated with volcanic eruptions could have provided a particularly suitable environment for this process. Production of relatively soluble and reactive phosphite salts could have supplied a pathway by which the first phosphorus atoms were incorporated into (pre)biological systems.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Basiuk, V. A. and Navarro-Gonzalez, R.: 1996, Origins Life Evol. Biosphere 26, 173.
Chameides, W. L. and Walker, J. C. G.: 1981, Origins Life Evol. Biosphere 11, 291.
Cooper, G. W., Onwo, W. M. and Cronin, J. R.: 1992, Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta 56, 4109.
De Graaf, R. M., Visscher, J. and Schwartz, A. W.: 1995, Nature 378, 474.
De Graaf, R. M, Visscher, J. and Schwartz, A. W.: 1997, J. Mol. Evol. 44, 237.
Gilbert, J. S. and Lane, S. J.: 1994, ‘Electrical Phenomena in Volcanic Plumes’, in Casadevall, T. J. (ed.), Volcanic Ash and Aviation Safety, US geological survey bulletin 2047, US government printing office, Washington, DC, pp. 31–38.
Grassine, G. and Ossicine, L.: 1962, J Chromat. 7, 351.
Gulick, A.: 1955, Am Scientist 43, 479.
Hill, R. D.: 1992, Origins Life Evol. Biosphere 22, 277.
Kasting, J. F.: 1993, Science 259, 920.
Koritnig, S.: 1978, in Wedepohl, K. H. (ed.), Handbook of Geochemistry, Vol. II/2, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 15-D, E.
Lavrentiev, G. A., Strigunkova, T. F. and Egorov, I. A.: 1984, Origins Life Evol. Biosphere 14, 205.
Macdonald, G. A.: 1972, Volcanoes, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, p. 462.
Miller, S. L.: 1953, Science 117, 528.
Miller, S. L. and Urey, H. C.: 1959, Science 130, 245.
Navarro-Gonzalez, R., Basiuk, V. and Rosenbaum, M.: 1996, ‘Lightning Associated to Archean Volcanic Ash-Gas Clouds’, in Chela-Flores, J. and Raulin F. (eds), Chemical Evolution: Physics of the Origin and Evolution of Life, Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp. 123–142.
Navarro-Gonzalez, R., Molina, M. J. and Molina, L. T.: 1998, Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 3123.
Podkletnov, N. E. and Markhinin, E. K.: 1981, Origins Life Evol Biosphere 11, 303.
Schwartz, A.W.: 1972, ‘The Sources of Phosphorus on the Primitive Earth: An Inquiry’, in Rohlfing, D. L. and Oparin, A. I. (eds), Molecular Evolution: Prebiological and Biological, Plenum, New York, pp. 129–140.
Schwartz, A. W. and Henderson-Sellers, A.: 1983, Precambrian Res. 22, 67.
Yamagata, Y., Watanabe, H., Saitoh, M. and Namba, T.: 1991, Nature 352, 516.