Hexose phosphorylation for a non-enzymatic glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway on early Earth

Glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathways play essential roles in cellular processes and are assumed to be among the most ancient metabolic pathways. Non-enzymatic metabolism-like reactions might have occurred on the prebiotic Earth and been inherited by the biological reactions. Previous research h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2024-01, Vol.14 (1), p.264-264, Article 264
Main Authors: Hirakawa, Yuta, Kakegawa, Takeshi, Furukawa, Yoshihiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/638/904
704/445/209
704/445/3929
Acids
Aldehydes
Earth
Evaporation
Glucose
Glycolysis
Hexose
Humanities and Social Sciences
Intermediates
Metabolic pathways
Meteors & meteorites
multidisciplinary
Pentose phosphate pathway
Phosphates
Phosphorylation
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Yeast
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Summary:Glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathways play essential roles in cellular processes and are assumed to be among the most ancient metabolic pathways. Non-enzymatic metabolism-like reactions might have occurred on the prebiotic Earth and been inherited by the biological reactions. Previous research has identified a part of the non-enzymatic glycolysis and the non-enzymatic pentose phosphate pathway from glucose 6-phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate, which are intermediates of these reactions. However, how these phosphorylated molecules were formed on the prebiotic Earth remains unclear. Herein, we demonstrate the synthesis of glucose and gluconate from simple aldehydes in alkaline solutions and the formation of glucose 6-phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate with borate using thermal evaporation. These results imply that the initial stages of glycolysis-like and pentose phosphate pathway-like reactions were achieved in borate-rich evaporative environments on prebiotic Earth, suggesting that non-enzymatic metabolism provided biomolecules and their precursors on prebiotic Earth.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-50743-8