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Shock Processing of Amino Acids Leading to Complex Structures—Implications to the Origin of Life

The building blocks of life, amino acids, are believed to have been synthesized in the extreme conditions that prevail in space, starting from simple molecules containing hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. However, the fate and role of amino acids when they are subjected to similar processes lar...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Singh, Surendra V., Vishakantaiah, Jayaram, Meka, Jaya K., Sivaprahasam, Vijayan, Chandrasekaran, Vijayanand, Thombre, Rebecca, Thiruvenkatam, Vijay, Mallya, Ambresh, Rajasekhar, Balabhadrapatruni N., Muruganantham, Mariyappan, Datey, Akshay, Hill, Hugh, Bhardwaj, Anil, Jagadeesh, Gopalan, Reddy, Kalidevapura P. J., Mason, Nigel J., Sivaraman, Bhalamurugan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7730583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33265981
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules25235634
Descripción
Sumario:The building blocks of life, amino acids, are believed to have been synthesized in the extreme conditions that prevail in space, starting from simple molecules containing hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. However, the fate and role of amino acids when they are subjected to similar processes largely remain unexplored. Here we report, for the first time, that shock processed amino acids tend to form complex agglomerate structures. Such structures are formed on timescales of about 2 ms due to impact induced shock heating and subsequent cooling. This discovery suggests that the building blocks of life could have self-assembled not just on Earth but on other planetary bodies as a result of impact events. Our study also provides further experimental evidence for the ‘threads’ observed in meteorites being due to assemblages of (bio)molecules arising from impact-induced shocks.