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Enceladus: First Observed Primordial Soup Could Arbitrate Origin-of-Life Debate

A recent breakthrough publication has reported complex organic molecules in the plumes emanating from the subglacial water ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus (Postberg et al., 2018, Nature 558:564–568). Based on detailed chemical scrutiny, the authors invoke primordial or endogenously synthesized...

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Autores principales: Kahana, Amit, Schmitt-Kopplin, Philippe, Lancet, Doron
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6785169/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31328961
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2019.2029
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author Kahana, Amit
Schmitt-Kopplin, Philippe
Lancet, Doron
author_facet Kahana, Amit
Schmitt-Kopplin, Philippe
Lancet, Doron
author_sort Kahana, Amit
collection PubMed
description A recent breakthrough publication has reported complex organic molecules in the plumes emanating from the subglacial water ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus (Postberg et al., 2018, Nature 558:564–568). Based on detailed chemical scrutiny, the authors invoke primordial or endogenously synthesized carbon-rich monomers (<200 u) and polymers (up to 8000 u). This appears to represent the first reported extraterrestrial organics-rich water body, a conceivable milieu for early steps in life's origin (“prebiotic soup”). One may ask which origin-of-life scenario appears more consistent with the reported molecular configurations on Enceladus. The observed monomeric organics are carbon-rich unsaturated molecules, vastly different from present-day metabolites, amino acids, and nucleotide bases, but quite chemically akin to simple lipids. The organic polymers are proposed to resemble terrestrial insoluble kerogens and humic substances, as well as refractory organic macromolecules found in carbonaceous chondritic meteorites. The authors posit that such polymers, upon long-term hydrous interactions, might break down to micelle-forming amphiphiles. In support of this, published detailed analyses of the Murchison chondrite are dominated by an immense diversity of likely amphiphilic monomers. Our specific quantitative model for compositionally reproducing lipid micelles is amphiphile-based and benefits from a pronounced organic diversity. It thus contrasts with other origin models, which require the presence of very specific building blocks and are expected to be hindered by excess of irrelevant compounds. Thus, the Enceladus finds support the possibility of a pre-RNA Lipid World scenario for life's origin.
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spelling pubmed-67851692019-10-10 Enceladus: First Observed Primordial Soup Could Arbitrate Origin-of-Life Debate Kahana, Amit Schmitt-Kopplin, Philippe Lancet, Doron Astrobiology Review Articles A recent breakthrough publication has reported complex organic molecules in the plumes emanating from the subglacial water ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus (Postberg et al., 2018, Nature 558:564–568). Based on detailed chemical scrutiny, the authors invoke primordial or endogenously synthesized carbon-rich monomers (<200 u) and polymers (up to 8000 u). This appears to represent the first reported extraterrestrial organics-rich water body, a conceivable milieu for early steps in life's origin (“prebiotic soup”). One may ask which origin-of-life scenario appears more consistent with the reported molecular configurations on Enceladus. The observed monomeric organics are carbon-rich unsaturated molecules, vastly different from present-day metabolites, amino acids, and nucleotide bases, but quite chemically akin to simple lipids. The organic polymers are proposed to resemble terrestrial insoluble kerogens and humic substances, as well as refractory organic macromolecules found in carbonaceous chondritic meteorites. The authors posit that such polymers, upon long-term hydrous interactions, might break down to micelle-forming amphiphiles. In support of this, published detailed analyses of the Murchison chondrite are dominated by an immense diversity of likely amphiphilic monomers. Our specific quantitative model for compositionally reproducing lipid micelles is amphiphile-based and benefits from a pronounced organic diversity. It thus contrasts with other origin models, which require the presence of very specific building blocks and are expected to be hindered by excess of irrelevant compounds. Thus, the Enceladus finds support the possibility of a pre-RNA Lipid World scenario for life's origin. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2019-10-01 2019-10-03 /pmc/articles/PMC6785169/ /pubmed/31328961 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2019.2029 Text en © Amit Kahana et al., 2019; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.
spellingShingle Review Articles
Kahana, Amit
Schmitt-Kopplin, Philippe
Lancet, Doron
Enceladus: First Observed Primordial Soup Could Arbitrate Origin-of-Life Debate
title Enceladus: First Observed Primordial Soup Could Arbitrate Origin-of-Life Debate
title_full Enceladus: First Observed Primordial Soup Could Arbitrate Origin-of-Life Debate
title_fullStr Enceladus: First Observed Primordial Soup Could Arbitrate Origin-of-Life Debate
title_full_unstemmed Enceladus: First Observed Primordial Soup Could Arbitrate Origin-of-Life Debate
title_short Enceladus: First Observed Primordial Soup Could Arbitrate Origin-of-Life Debate
title_sort enceladus: first observed primordial soup could arbitrate origin-of-life debate
topic Review Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6785169/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31328961
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2019.2029
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