Project: Will hydrolysis and phosphate depletion problems in the origin of life be overcome?

Phosphorylation of Nucleic Acid Precursors in a Supercritical CO2-Water Two-Phase Environment under the Seafloor

Based on the liquid/supercritical CO2 hypothesis, a recently proposed new theory, a research team led by Graduate Student Shoh-Daichiro Tagawa and Associate Professor Kousuke Fujishima of the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) has reproduced a supercritical CO2-water two-phase environment under the seafloor using a high-pressure reactor and revealed the functional importance of this environment in the origin of life. The team has clarified the functional importance of this environment in the origin of life. They confirmed that water can achieve molecular enrichment through dehydration by dissolving into the supercritical CO2 phase and that the water coexisting with the CO2 fluid becomes acidic, allowing the leaching of phosphate, which is essential for life, from phosphate minerals (apatite), and that phosphorylation of nucleic acid precursors (nucleosides) Phosphorylation of nucleic acid precursors (nucleosides) is enhanced at temperatures above 60 ºC. This study succeeded in experimentally confirming that the supercritical CO2-water two-phase environment under the seafloor of the early Earth is a place that can overcome the two problems of hydrolysis and phosphate depletion and provide stable organic matter containing phosphoric acid, which is important for the origin of life.

（Adapted from ELSI release）

For details, please refer to the release from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) of Tokyo University of Science.