Prebiotic Vitamin B${}_3$ Synthesis in Carbonaceous Planetesimals

Abstract

Aqueous chemistry within carbonaceous planetesimals is promising for synthesizing prebiotic organic matter essential to all life. Meteorites derived from these planetesimals delivered these life building blocks to the early Earth, potentially facilitating the origins of life. Here, we studied the formation of vitamin B${}_3$ as it is an important precursor of the coenzyme NAD(P)(H), which is essential for the metabolism of all life as we know it. We propose a new reaction mechanism based on known experiments in the literature that explains the synthesis of vitamin B${}_3$. It combines the sugar precursors glyceraldehyde or dihydroxyacetone with the amino acids aspartic acid or asparagine in aqueous solution without oxygen or other oxidizing agents. We performed thermochemical equilibrium calculations to test the thermodynamic favorability. The predicted vitamin B${}_3$ abundances resulting from this new pathway were compared with measured values in asteroids and meteorites. We conclude that competition for reactants and decomposition by hydrolysis are necessary to explain the prebiotic content of meteorites. In sum, our model fits well into the complex network of chemical pathways active in this environment.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in ChemPlusChem. The authors Klaus Paschek and Mijin Lee contributed equally. 18 pages, 7 figures (all colored). Supporting Information is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24326575

References in corpus (19)

• Rapid planetesimal formation in turbulent circumstellar discs
• The effect of gas drag on the growth of protoplanets -- Analytical expressions for the accretion of small bodies in laminar disks
• Origin of the RNA World: The Fate of Nucleobases in Warm Little Ponds
• Cometary Chemistry and the Origin of Icy Solar System Bodies, the view after Rosetta
• Turbulence sets the length scale for planetesimal formation: Local 2D simulations of streaming instability and planetesimal formation
• The effects of short-lived radionuclides and porosity on the early thermo-mechanical evolution of planetesimals
• The multifaceted planetesimal formation process
• Accretion of water in carbonaceous chondrites: current evidence and implications for the delivery of water to early Earth
• Nature's Starships. I. Observed Abundances and Relative Frequencies of Amino Acids in Meteorites
• A Search for Heterocycles in GOTHAM Observations of TMC-1
• Meteoritic Abundances of Fatty Acids and Potential Reaction Pathways in Planetesimals
• Seeding the Pregenetic Earth: Meteoritic Abundances of Nucleobases and Potential Reaction Pathways
• Late Accretion and the Late Veneer
• The iron record of asteroidal processes in carbonaceous chondrites
• Possible Ribose Synthesis in Carbonaceous Planetesimals
• Meteorites and the RNA World: A Thermodynamic Model of Nucleobase Synthesis within Planetesimals
• Aluminum-26 Enrichment in the Surface of Protostellar Disks Due to Protostellar Cosmic Rays
• Nature's Starships II: Simulating the Synthesis of Amino Acids in Meteorite Parent Bodies
• Meteorites and the RNA World: Synthesis of Nucleobases in Carbonaceous Planetesimals and the Role of Initial Volatile Content

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Deep Mantle-Atmosphere Coupling and Carbonaceous Bombardment: Options for Biomolecule Formation on an Oxidized Early Earth