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Reduction of nitrogen compounds in oceanic basement and its implications for HCN formation and abiotic organic synthesis

Hydrogen cyanide is an excellent organic reagent and is central to most of the reaction pathways leading to abiotic formation of simple organic compounds containing nitrogen, such as amino acids, purines and pyrimidines. Reduced carbon and nitrogen precursor compounds for the synthesis of HCN may be...

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Autores principales: Holm, Nils G, Neubeck, Anna
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2770064/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19849830
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1467-4866-10-9
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author Holm, Nils G
Neubeck, Anna
author_facet Holm, Nils G
Neubeck, Anna
author_sort Holm, Nils G
collection PubMed
description Hydrogen cyanide is an excellent organic reagent and is central to most of the reaction pathways leading to abiotic formation of simple organic compounds containing nitrogen, such as amino acids, purines and pyrimidines. Reduced carbon and nitrogen precursor compounds for the synthesis of HCN may be formed under off-axis hydrothermal conditions in oceanic lithosphere in the presence of native Fe and Ni and are adsorbed on authigenic layer silicates and zeolites. The native metals as well as the molecular hydrogen reducing CO(2 )to CO/CH(4 )and NO(3)(-)/NO(2)(- )to NH(3)/NH(4)(+ )are a result of serpentinization of mafic rocks. Oceanic plates are conveyor belts of reduced carbon and nitrogen compounds from the off-axis hydrothermal environments to the subduction zones, where compaction, dehydration, desiccation and diagenetic reactions affect the organic precursors. CO/CH(4 )and NH(3)/NH(4)(+ )in fluids distilled out of layer silicates and zeolites in the subducting plate at an early stage of subduction will react upon heating and form HCN, which is then available for further organic reactions to, for instance, carbohydrates, nucleosides or even nucleotides, under alkaline conditions in hydrated mantle rocks of the overriding plate. Convergent margins in the initial phase of subduction must, therefore, be considered the most potent sites for prebiotic reactions on Earth. This means that origin of life processes are, perhaps, only possible on planets where some kind of plate tectonics occur.
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spelling pubmed-27700642009-10-29 Reduction of nitrogen compounds in oceanic basement and its implications for HCN formation and abiotic organic synthesis Holm, Nils G Neubeck, Anna Geochem Trans Review Hydrogen cyanide is an excellent organic reagent and is central to most of the reaction pathways leading to abiotic formation of simple organic compounds containing nitrogen, such as amino acids, purines and pyrimidines. Reduced carbon and nitrogen precursor compounds for the synthesis of HCN may be formed under off-axis hydrothermal conditions in oceanic lithosphere in the presence of native Fe and Ni and are adsorbed on authigenic layer silicates and zeolites. The native metals as well as the molecular hydrogen reducing CO(2 )to CO/CH(4 )and NO(3)(-)/NO(2)(- )to NH(3)/NH(4)(+ )are a result of serpentinization of mafic rocks. Oceanic plates are conveyor belts of reduced carbon and nitrogen compounds from the off-axis hydrothermal environments to the subduction zones, where compaction, dehydration, desiccation and diagenetic reactions affect the organic precursors. CO/CH(4 )and NH(3)/NH(4)(+ )in fluids distilled out of layer silicates and zeolites in the subducting plate at an early stage of subduction will react upon heating and form HCN, which is then available for further organic reactions to, for instance, carbohydrates, nucleosides or even nucleotides, under alkaline conditions in hydrated mantle rocks of the overriding plate. Convergent margins in the initial phase of subduction must, therefore, be considered the most potent sites for prebiotic reactions on Earth. This means that origin of life processes are, perhaps, only possible on planets where some kind of plate tectonics occur. BioMed Central 2009-10-22 /pmc/articles/PMC2770064/ /pubmed/19849830 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1467-4866-10-9 Text en Copyright ©2009 Holm and Neubeck; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review
Holm, Nils G
Neubeck, Anna
Reduction of nitrogen compounds in oceanic basement and its implications for HCN formation and abiotic organic synthesis
title Reduction of nitrogen compounds in oceanic basement and its implications for HCN formation and abiotic organic synthesis
title_full Reduction of nitrogen compounds in oceanic basement and its implications for HCN formation and abiotic organic synthesis
title_fullStr Reduction of nitrogen compounds in oceanic basement and its implications for HCN formation and abiotic organic synthesis
title_full_unstemmed Reduction of nitrogen compounds in oceanic basement and its implications for HCN formation and abiotic organic synthesis
title_short Reduction of nitrogen compounds in oceanic basement and its implications for HCN formation and abiotic organic synthesis
title_sort reduction of nitrogen compounds in oceanic basement and its implications for hcn formation and abiotic organic synthesis
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2770064/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19849830
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1467-4866-10-9
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