Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T01:26:30.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An automated apparatus for the simulation of prebiotic wet‒dry cycles under strictly anaerobic conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

Stefan Fox ,
Hannes Lukas Pleyer  and
Henry Strasdeit Open the ORCID record for Henry Strasdeit [Opens in a new window]
Stefan Fox
Affiliation:
Department of Bioinorganic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of Hohenheim, Garbenstr. 30, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
Hannes Lukas Pleyer
Affiliation:
Department of Bioinorganic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of Hohenheim, Garbenstr. 30, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
Henry Strasdeit*
Affiliation:
Department of Bioinorganic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of Hohenheim, Garbenstr. 30, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
*
Author for correspondence: Henry Strasdeit, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prebiotic chemical evolution on the early Earth may have been driven in part by fluctuating environments, for example wet‒dry and temperature cycling in volcanic rock pools. Here, we describe the setup, operating principle and test applications of a newly developed ‘wet‒dry apparatus’ (WDA) designed to simulate such fluctuating environments. The WDA allows adjusting the duration of the cycles, the temperature during the wet and dry phases and the organic and mineral components, which are all key parameters in wet–dry simulations. The WDA's most important features, however, are (i) that it is automated, which means that long-time experiments are possible without the need for an operator and (ii) that the virtual absence of free oxygen in the early Earth's atmosphere at ground level can be simulated. Rigorously oxygen-free conditions were achieved by passing 99.999% nitrogen gas through two alkaline pyrogallol solutions in series, prior to entering the WDA. We used three chemical systems to test the WDA: (i) the amino acid glycine in the presence and absence of clay minerals, (ii) linoleic acid (an oxygen-sensitive amphiphile) with and without the mineral olivine, and (iii) alkaline pyrogallol solution. We observed that clay minerals greatly accelerated the decomposition of glycine under wet‒dry conditions. Glycine peptides were formed as minor products. In the course of the glycine experiments, we developed a reliable gas chromatographic method to quantify the cyclic dipeptide 2,5-diketopiperazine. The decomposition of linoleic acid in wet‒dry cycles was promoted by both air and olivine. And finally, the extremely oxygen-sensitive pyrogallol solution was used as a colour indicator for residual oxygen in the WDA. The simulation facility in our laboratory currently consists of eight identical WDAs and a surrounding infrastructure. It can be made available to others who wish to perform cyclic wet–dry experiments.

Keywords

Gas chromatography‒mass spectrometryglycinehigh-performance liquid chromatographylinoleic acidmineralsprebiotic fluctuating environmentspyrogallolrock poolswet‒dry cycles
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 60 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

These authors contributed equally to this work.

References

Abrash, HI, Shih, D, Elias, W and Malekmehr, F (1989) A kinetic study on the air oxidation of pyrogallol and purpurogallin. International Journal of Chemical Kinetics 21, 465–476.Google Scholar
Arndt, NT and Nisbet, EG (2012) Processes on the young earth and the habitats of early life. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 40, 521–549.Google Scholar
Bujdák, J and Rode, BM (1999) Silica, alumina and clay catalyzed peptide bond formation: enhanced efficiency of alumina catalyst. Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 29, 451–461.Google Scholar
Butte, W (1983) Rapid method for the determination of fatty acid profiles from fats and oils using trimethylsulphonium hydroxide for transesterification. Journal of Chromatography 261, 142–145.Google Scholar
Cleaves, HJ and Miller, SL (1998) Oceanic protection of prebiotic organic compounds from UV radiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 95, 7260–7263.Google Scholar
Dalai, P (2013) Thermal behavior of amino acids in inorganic matrices: relevance for chemical evolution. Doctoral Thesis, University of Hohenheim, Germany, p. 23.Google Scholar
Dalai, P, Pleyer, HL, Strasdeit, H and Fox, S (2017) The influence of mineral matrices on the thermal behavior of glycine. Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 47, 427–452.Google Scholar
Damer, B and Deamer, D (2015) Coupled phases and combinatorial selection in fluctuating hydrothermal pools: a scenario to guide experimental approaches to the origin of cellular life. Life 5, 872–887.Google Scholar
Das, SK and Harris, RS (1970) Lipids and fatty acids in fossil teeth. Journal of Dental Research 49, 126–130.Google Scholar
Deamer, D (2014) The origin of life. In Losos, JB, Baum, DA, Futuyma, DJ, Hoekstra, HE, Lenski, RE, Moore, AJ, Peichel, CL, Schluter, D and Whitlock, MC (eds). The Princeton Guide to Evolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 120–126.Google Scholar
Deamer, D (2016) Membranes and the origin of life: a century of conjecture. Journal of Molecular Evolution 83, 159–168.Google Scholar
Deamer, D (2017) The role of lipid membranes in life's origin. Life 7, 5.Google Scholar
DeGuzman, V, Vercoutere, W, Shenasa, H and Deamer, D (2014) Generation of oligonucleotides under hydrothermal conditions by non-enzymatic polymerization. Journal of Molecular Evolution 78, 251–262.Google Scholar
Destaillats, F and Angers, P (2005) Thermally induced formation of conjugated isomers of linoleic acid. European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology 107, 167–172.Google Scholar
Duncan, IA, Harriman, A and Porter, G (1979) Detection of small quantities of photochemically produced oxygen by reaction with alkaline pyrogallol. Analytical Chemistry 51, 2206–2208.Google Scholar
Forsythe, JG, Yu, S-S, Mamajanov, I, Grover, MA, Krishnamurthy, R, Fernández, FM and Hud, NV (2015) Ester-mediated amide bond formation driven by wet–dry cycles: a possible path to polypeptides on the prebiotic earth. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 54, 9871–9875.Google Scholar
Fox, S, Dalai, P, Lambert, J-F and Strasdeit, H (2015) Hypercondensation of an amino acid: synthesis and characterization of a black glycine polymer. Chemistry – A European Journal 21, 8897‒8904.Google Scholar
Franck, S (1998) Evolution of the global mean heat flow over 4.6 Gyr. Tectonophysics 291, 9‒18.Google Scholar
Frankel, EN (1982) Volatile lipid oxidation products. Progress in Lipid Research 22, 1–33.Google Scholar
Frankel, EN (1991) Recent advances in lipid oxidation. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 54, 495–511.Google Scholar
Fujio, H, Noma, Y and Amano, T (1959) Analytical aspects of the precipitin reaction using some artificial antigens. Biken Journal 2, 35–49. CAplus accession number: 1960:131194.Google Scholar
Gebicki, JM and Hicks, M (1976) Preparation and properties of vesicles enclosed by fatty acid membranes. Chemistry and Physics of Lipids 16, 142–160.Google Scholar
Hanczyc, MM and Monnard, P-A (2016) The origin of life and the potential role of soaps. Lipid Technology 28, 88–92.Google Scholar
Hanczyc, MM, Fujikawa, SM and Szostak, JW (2003) Experimental models of primitive cellular compartments: encapsulation, growth, and division. Science 302, 618–622.Google Scholar
Haqq-Misra, J, Kasting, JF and Lee, S (2011) Availability of O2 and H2O2 on pre-photosynthetic earth. Astrobiology 11, 293–302.Google Scholar
Higgs, PG (2016) The effect of limited diffusion and wet–dry cycling on reversible polymerization reactions: implications for prebiotic synthesis of nucleic acids. Life 6, 24.Google Scholar
Kump, LR (2008) The rise of atmospheric oxygen. Nature 451, 277–278.Google Scholar
Lahav, N and White, DH (1980) A possible role of fluctuating clay-water systems in the production of ordered prebiotic oligomers. Journal of Molecular Evolution 16, 11–21.Google Scholar
Lahav, N, White, D and Chang, S (1978) Peptide formation in the prebiotic era: thermal condensation of glycine in fluctuating clay environments. Science 201, 67–69.Google Scholar
Lasaga, AC, Holland, HD and Dwyer, MJ (1971) Primordial oil slick. Science 174, 53‒55.Google Scholar
Lathe, R (2004) Fast tidal cycling and the origin of life. Icarus 168, 18–22.Google Scholar
Lathe, R (2006) Early tides: response to Varga et al. Icarus 180, 277–280.Google Scholar
Mamajanov, I, MacDonald, PJ, Ying, J, Duncanson, DM, Dowdy, GR, Walker, CA, Engelhart, AE, Fernández, FM, Grover, MA, Hud, NV and Schork, FJ (2014) Ester formation and hydrolysis during wet−dry cycles: generation of far-from-equilibrium polymers in a model prebiotic reaction. Macromolecules 47, 1334−11343.Google Scholar
Martin, H, Claeys, P, Gargaud, M, Pinti, DL and Selsis, F (2006) 6. Environmental context. Earth, Moon, and Planets 98, 205‒245.Google Scholar
Nilson, FPR (2002) Possible impact of a primordial oil slick on atmospheric and chemical evolution. Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 32, 247–253.Google Scholar
Olasagasti, F, Kim, HJ, Pourmand, N and Deamer, DW (2011) Non-enzymatic transfer of sequence information under plausible prebiotic conditions. Biochimie 93, 556–561.Google Scholar
Olsen, JV, de Godoy, LMF, Li, G, Macek, B, Mortensen, P, Pesch, R, Makarov, A, Lange, O, Horning, S and Mann, M (2005) Parts per million mass accuracy on an Orbitrap mass spectrometer via lock mass injection into a C-trap. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 4, 2010–2021.Google Scholar
Porter, NA, Caldwell, SE and Mills, KA (1995) Mechanisms of free radical oxidation of unsaturated lipids. Lipids 30, 277–290.Google Scholar
Ross, DS and Deamer, D (2016) Dry/wet cycling and the thermodynamics and kinetics of prebiotic polymer synthesis. Life 6, 28.Google Scholar
Saetia, S, Liedl, KR, Eder, AH and Rode, BM (1993) Evaporation cycle experiments – a simulation of salt-induced peptide synthesis under possible prebiotic conditions. Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 23, 167–176.Google Scholar
Sagan, C and Khare, BN (1979) Tholins: organic chemistry of interstellar grains and gas. Nature 277, 102‒107.Google Scholar
Shimoyama, A and Ogasawara, R (2002) Dipeptides and diketopiperazines in the Yamato-791198 and Murchison carbonaceous chondrites. Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 32, 165–179.Google Scholar
Shriver, DF and Drezdzon, MA (1986) The Manipulation of Air-Sensitive Compounds, 2nd edn. New York: Wiley, p. 74.Google Scholar
Stüeken, EE, Anderson, RE, Bowman, JS, Brazelton, WJ, Colangelo-Lillis, J, Goldman, AD, Som, SM and Baross, JA (2013) Did life originate from a global chemical reactor? Geobiology 11, 101‒126.Google Scholar
Turner, S, Rushmer, T, Reagan, M and Moyen, J-F (2014) Heading down early on? Start of subduction on earth. Geology 42, 139‒142.Google Scholar
Van Kranendonk, MJ (2011) Onset of plate tectonics. Science 333, 413‒414.Google Scholar
Varfolomeev, SD and Lushchekina, SV (2014) Prebiotic synthesis and selection of macromolecules: thermal cycling as a condition for synthesis and combinatorial selection. Geochemistry International 52, 1197–1206.Google Scholar
Westfalen, AG (2017) https://www.westfalen-ag.de/geschaeftskunden/auf-einen-blick-alle-gase/applicationdetailview/productdetailview/gas/stickstoff-50-1.html (accessed 15 December 2017).Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Fox et al. supplementary material

Fox et al. supplementary material 1

Download Fox et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 8.6 MB