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Universal Protein Ancestors from Hydrogen Cyanide and Water

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Clifford N. Matthews
Clifford N. Matthews*
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60680, U.S.A.

Abstract

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Current research in cosmochemistry shows that crude organic solids of high molecular weight are readily formed in planetary, interplanetary and interstellar environments. What are the components of these intractable materials and how are they connected, if at all, with the beginnings of life? It is proposed here that underlying much of this ubiquitous chemistry is a low energy route leading directly to the synthesis of heteropolypeptides from hydrogen cyanide and water. Evidence from laboratory and extraterrestrial investigations suggests that this hydrogen cyanide polymerization is a truly universal process that accounts not only for the past synthesis of protein ancestors on Earth but also for reactions proceeding elsewhere today within our solar system, on planetary bodies around other stars and in the dusty molecular clouds of spiral galaxies. The existence of this preferred pathway adds greatly to the probability of life being widespread in the universe.

Type
Section III. Planetary, Interplanetary and Interstellar Organic Matter
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 112: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life: Recent Developments , 1985 , pp. 151 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1985 

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