Thermodynamics of Potential CHO Metabolites in a Reducing Environment

How did metabolism arise and evolve? What chemical compounds might be suitable to support and sustain a proto-metabolism before the advent of more complex co-factors? We explore these questions by using first-principles quantum chemistry to calculate the free energies of CHO compounds in aqueous sol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Life (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2021-09, Vol.11 (10), p.1025
Main Authors: Kua, Jeremy, Hernandez, Alexandra L., Velasquez, Danielle N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acetic acid
Aqueous solutions
Carbon
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide fixation
Chemical compounds
chemical evolution
Chemistry
Energy
Enzymes
Equilibrium
First principles
Glycolaldehyde
Glycolic acid
Metabolism
Metabolites
origin of life
Permutations
prebiotic chemistry
proto-metabolism
Quantum chemistry
Reducing agents
Solvents
Statistical mechanics
Thermodynamic cycles
Thermodynamics
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Summary:How did metabolism arise and evolve? What chemical compounds might be suitable to support and sustain a proto-metabolism before the advent of more complex co-factors? We explore these questions by using first-principles quantum chemistry to calculate the free energies of CHO compounds in aqueous solution, allowing us to probe the thermodynamics of core extant cycles and their closely related chemical cousins. By framing our analysis in terms of the simplest feasible cycle and its permutations, we analyze potentially favorable thermodynamic cycles for CO2 fixation with H2 as a reductant. We find that paying attention to redox states illuminates which reactions are endergonic or exergonic. Our results highlight the role of acetate in proto-metabolic cycles, and its connection to other prebiotic molecules such as glyoxalate, glycolaldehyde, and glycolic acid.
ISSN:2075-1729
2075-1729
DOI:10.3390/life11101025