荷兰拉德堡德大学Huck, Wilhelm T. S.团队报道了环境条件驱动生命起源前反应网络中反应途径的自组织。相关研究成果发表在2022年6月6日出版的《自然—化学》。

生命从起源前环境的进化需要一个逐步向更大分子复杂性的化学进化过程。已经建立了与生命起源前相关的精细合成路线来构建生命的组成部分。然而，仅仅利用固有的分子化学反应性和非生物环境之间的相互作用，功能化学系统是如何沿着方向进化的，目前尚不清楚。

该文中，研究人员展示了复杂的化学反应系统如何在不同的环境条件下表现出定义良好的自组织。这种自组织能够根据原料和催化剂可用性等因素控制反应产物的成分复杂性。研究人员观察了Breslow循环如何通过向网络中加入C2构建块，以及甲醛驱动的链增长主导的反应途径。为应对环境变化而出现的有组织的化学反应系统为化学进化过程提供了一种潜在的机制，该过程弥合了生命起源前化学构件与生命起源之间的鸿沟。

附：英文原文

Title: Environmental conditions drive self-organization of reaction pathways in a prebiotic reaction network

Author: Robinson, William E., Daines, Elena, van Duppen, Peer, de Jong, Thijs, Huck, Wilhelm T. S.

Issue&Volume: 2022-06-06

Abstract: The evolution of life from the prebiotic environment required a gradual process of chemical evolution towards greater molecular complexity. Elaborate prebiotically relevant synthetic routes to the building blocks of life have been established. However, it is still unclear how functional chemical systems evolved with direction using only the interaction between inherent molecular chemical reactivity and the abiotic environment. Here we demonstrate how complex systems of chemical reactions exhibit well-defined self-organization in response to varying environmental conditions. This self-organization allows the compositional complexity of the reaction products to be controlled as a function of factors such as feedstock and catalyst availability. We observe how Breslow’s cycle contributes to the reaction composition by feeding C2 building blocks into the network, alongside reaction pathways dominated by formaldehyde-driven chain growth. The emergence of organized systems of chemical reactions in response to changes in the environment offers a potential mechanism for a chemical evolution process that bridges the gap between prebiotic chemical building blocks and the origin of life.

DOI: 10.1038/s41557-022-00956-7

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-022-00956-7