PRIMORDIAL SOUP

By Sean Henahan, Access Excellence

LA JOLLA- In a simulation of the days when the Earth was covered in primordial ooze, researchers at the University of California, San ie!o have synthesized pantetheine, an in!redient considered essential for the development of life on the planet" #he nature of the ori!in of life remains one of the most intri!uin! $uestions in %iolo!y" &esearchers at the University of California, San ie!o's Specialized Center of &esearch and #rainin! in Exo%iolo!y are approachin! the $uestion %y simulatin! environmental conditions as they are thou!ht to have existed in (pre%iotic( times" #he researchers are studyin! the a%iotic synthesis of %iomolecules to determine which ones could have %een present on Earth %efore life arose and, thus, may have %een important to the first livin! or!anisms" #he UCS research team is led %y r" Stanley )iller" r" )iller is well *nown for his 'primordial soup' experiment conducted in +,-." At that time he demonstrated that amino acids could %e formed %y passin! an electric current throu!h a flas* of methane" #his su!!ested that life could have arisen from materials and conditions present in early Earth history" r" )iller %elieves many other chemicals in addition to amino acids would have to have %een present to facilitate the transition to livin! or!anisms" In particular, the presence of pantetheine could have enhanced the transition process" /antetheine is related to coenzyme A, an essential component for protein formation" Coenzyme A is used %y every *nown or!anism to assist in a wide variety of chemical reactions and it is possi%le that in the very earliest or!anisms this role was played %y pantetheine alone, notes )iller" In their recent experiment, the UCS scientists heated a mixture of pantoyl lactone, %eta0 alanine and cysteamine at 12 de!rees C 3+2- de!rees 45" All three chemicals are %elieved to have %een present on the early Earth" Amon! the other chemicals formed was pantetheine" #his su!!ests pantetheine could have %een created at the mar!ins of evaporatin! pools of water in pre%iotic times" (#hese components are extremely solu%le and so would have %een preferentially concentrated in evaporatin! %odies of water, for example on %eaches and at la!oon mar!ins" 6ur results show that amide %onds can %e formed at temperatures as low as 12 de!rees C, and provide circumstantial support for the su!!estion that pantetheine and coenzyme A were important in the earliest meta%olic systems,( noted )iller" #here are two main hypotheses re!ardin! the pre%iotic synthesis of coenzymes" 6ne, the (&7A world( hypothesis, holds that coenzymes were part of the covalent structure of &7A, and assisted in the &7A0%ased meta%olism" Another hypothesis su!!ests that the &7A world was preceded %y a thioester world" Accordin! to that hypothesis, coenzyme A played an essential role in the activation of amino acids and hydroxy acids in peptide synthesis" #he research provides evidence for the presence of an important in!redient in the ori!inal soup of life" It has %een demonstrated that amino acids can form a%iotically in a num%er of ways and are used %y modern or!anisms for the manufacture of proteins" Su!ars, however, which are components of modern !enetic materials such as 7A or &7A are thou!ht to %e too unsta%le to have %een widespread on Earth %efore life arose" Another of the remainin! (%i! $uestions( is how and when did non0livin! molecules turn into life forms and %e!in to ma*e copies of themselves"
http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SUA02/primordial_soup.php

/rimordial Soup Any discussion on the ori!in is life is not complete without considerin! the primordial soup" #here is no direct evidence of the soup8s existence, and on purely theoretical !round it should not exist" If it did exist, science can say with certainty that it was a very localized existence" #hat is it may have %een a small puddle, near a volcano, ri!ht at the entrance of a cave, near an ocean or a river" #he primitive ocean was definitely not the primordial soup" #he ocean could not possi%ly serve as the soup %ecause it would dilute the %iolo!ical precursors, and it would not protect the precursors from ultraviolet li!ht" )any authors have criticized the concept of the soup" Its resilience in %iolo!y text %oo*s is $uite amazin! !iven that so few scientists %elieve that it ever existed" (Accordin!ly, A%elson3+,995, Hull3+,925, Sillen3+,9-5, and many others have criticized the hypothesis that the primitive ocean, unli*e the contemporary ocean, was a (thic* soup( containin! all of the micromolecules re$uired for the next sta!e of molecular evolution" #he concept of a primitive (thic* soup( or (primordial %roth( is one of the most persistent ideas at the same time that is most stron!ly contraindicated %y thermodynamic reasonin! and %y lac* of experimental support"( 0 Sidney 4ox, :laus ose on pa!e .; in )olecular Evolution and the 6ri!in of <ife" (the primitive ocean was steadily irradiated with a relatively hi!h dose of solar ultraviolet li!ht " " " A steady irradiation of a rather homo!eneous solution results in de!radative rather than synthetic reactions( Sidney 4ox, :laus ose in )olecular Evolution and the 6ri!in of <ife" (Based on the fore!oin! !eochemical assessment, we conclude that %oth in the atmosphere and in the various water %asins of the primitive earth, many destructive interactions would have so vastly diminished, if not alto!ether consumed, essential precursor chemicals, that chemical evolution rates would have %een ne!li!i%le" #he soup would have %een too dilute for polymerization to occur" Even local ponds for concentratin! soup in!redients would have met with the same pro%lem" 4urthermore, no !eolo!ical evidence indicates an or!anic soup, even a small or!anic pond, ever existed on this planet" It is %ecomin! clear that however life %e!an on earth, the usual conceived notion that life emer!ed from an oceanic soup of or!anic chemicals is a most implausi%le hypothesis" =e may therefore with fairness call this scenario the myth of the pre%iotic soup"( 0 #haxton, Bradley, 6lsen on pa!e 99 of #he )ystery of <ife's 6ri!in" >Contrary to earlier su!!estions that essentially all sta!es of chemical evolution occurred in the open seas, it is now !enerally accepted that the concentration of the soup was pro%a%ly too small for efficient synthesis""""""?0 7issen%aum, :enyon, 6ro, in the >@ournal of )olecular Evolution,? +,;-" 4urthermore, any or!anic compounds not destroyed %y UA li!ht would react to form an insolu%le polymer" #his reaction *nown as the )aillard reaction would remove most of the or!anic molecules in the soup ma*in! them unavaila%le for chemical evolution" > #he rapid formation of this insolu%le polymeric material would have removed the %ul* of the dissolved or!anic car%on from the primitive oceans and would thus have prevented the formation of the or!anic soup"? 0 7issen%aum, :enyon, 6ro, @ournal of )olecular Evolution, +,;-" In summaryB +5 It is extremely difficult to create information and *nowled!e %efore life exists" C5 Excessive investi!ator interference is re$uired to ma*e %iolo!ical su%units polymerize" .5 #he pre%iotic synthesis of the su%units re$uired for 7A and &7A 3especially ri%ose and cytosine5 presents some very serious challen!es" 15 It is unli*ely that any sin!le chemical can possess the re$uired *nowled!e to replicate, %ecause it must not only

*now how to replicate, %ut it must also *now how to use an ener!y source to drive its own replication" -5 Any favora%le environment for chemical evolution would have %een hi!hly localized to a small puddle" 95 Because of the localized nature of the soup and the low concentration of %iolo!ical precursors, any ro%ust self replicatin! system 3i"e" <ife5 would need the a%ility to synthesize many of the chemicals re$uired for self replication" Any self replicatin! system lac*in! this capa%ility would not %e a%le to survive much less replicate" #a*en to!ether the evidence su!!ests that the first livin! thin! was not a self replicatin! molecule, %ut rather a system of chemicals that contained the *nowled!e re$uired to replicate, and the a%ility to couple this replication to an ener!y source" 4urthermore, the scarcity of chemicals li*e ri%ose, adenine, and cytosine imply that for this system to survive, it must have %een a%le to synthesize many if not all such chemicals from more a%undant chemicals" All of these factors imply that the first livin! thin! was not that much simpler than life as it exists today" It may have even %een more complex" #he primordial soup is often envisioned as an evaporatin! pond next to the ocean" #he tides and waves continually %rin! new chemicals into the pond, the sun evaporates the water concentratin! the chemicals, and the chemicals polymerize into thin!s li*e &7A molecules" #haxton discussed this myth at len!th in his out of print %oo*B #he )ystery of <ife's 6ri!in" #he %asic pro%lem is that the UA li!ht destroys %iolo!ical molecules faster than it synthesizes them" And the salt in the ocean once concentrated will prevent the polymerization of or!anic molecules 3salt causes these molecules to precipitate out of solution so that they are no lon!er availa%le for polymerization5"