A paper by the COOL Center, “Selective incorporation of proteinaceous over nonproteinaceous cationic amino acids in model prebiotic oligomerization reactions”, has been highlighted in a Nature article. The Nature article discussed the possibility of life starting, not in oceans, but in shallow forms of water undergoing wet-dry cycles and being subjected to UV radiation. This could have allowed concentration of chemicals and driven the building of molecules into more complex structures. Moran Frenkel-Pinter advocated that wet-dry cycles were crucial to the formation of chain molecules. This is supported by the COOL center’s research paper which studied oligomerization reactions of positive amino acids to try and understand the chemistry behind proteinaceous side chains and protein backbone selection during early evolution. In dry-down reactions, proteinaceous amino acids were observed to condense to a greater extent compared to non proteinaceous amino acids. This suggests that intermittent drying may explain the selection for proteinaceous amino acids in proto-proteins of early Earth.
Moran Frenkel-Pinter was also interviewed for a Nature podcast on the article. She further discussed her research on the formation of proto-peptides under dry-wet cycling analogous to the cycling of water activity on prebiotic Earth. To learn more, listen to the podcast at this link.