Fairchild, Jasper;
Islam, Saidul;
Singh, Jyoti;
Bučar, Dejan-Krešimir;
Powner, Matthew;
(2024)
Prebiotically plausible chemoselective pantetheine synthesis in water.
Science
, 383
(6685)
pp. 911-918.
10.1126/science.adk4432.
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Abstract
Coenzyme A (CoA) is essential to all life on Earth, and its functional subunit, pantetheine, is important in many origin-of-life scenarios, but how pantetheine emerged on the early Earth remains a mystery. Earlier attempts to selectively synthesize pantetheine failed, leading to suggestions that “simpler” thiols must have preceded pantetheine at the origin of life. In this work, we report high-yielding and selective prebiotic syntheses of pantetheine in water. Chemoselective multicomponent aldol, iminolactone, and aminonitrile reactions delivered spontaneous differentiation of pantoic acid and proteinogenic amino acid syntheses, as well as the dihydroxyl, gem-dimethyl, and β-alanine-amide moieties of pantetheine in dilute water. Our results are consistent with a role for canonical pantetheine at the outset of life on Earth.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Prebiotically plausible chemoselective pantetheine synthesis in water |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1126/science.adk4432 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk4432 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Chemistry |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10188078 |
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