New paper on a Phosphorylating System for the Origins of Life

At the Origins of Life, the transfer of scarce phosphate to the organic molecules that make up biochemistry is a significant challenge for prebiotic chemistry. Here we show a prebiotic physicochemical cycle to activate orthophosphate and via a kinetically stable thermodynamically activated molecule phosphorylate all of Life’s basic building blocks. Excitingly, this system is constructed along the same principles by which Life transfers phosphate within cells. We are very grateful to the Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life for supporting this research.

 

The paper is here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25555-x

 

You can read a summary of the paper here:

https://twitter.com/oliver_maguire/status/1438836473973952515