Research Article
On a Hypothetical Generational Relationship between HCN and Constituents of the Reductive Citric Acid Cycle†
Albert Eschenmoser,
Albert Eschenmoser
Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Hönggerberg HCI H309, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 10, CH-8093 Zürich
The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Search for more papers by this authorAlbert Eschenmoser,
Albert Eschenmoser
Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Hönggerberg HCI H309, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 10, CH-8093 Zürich
The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Search for more papers by this author†
See also the preceeding paper [1].
Abstract
Encouraged by observations made on the course of reactions the HCN-tetramer can undergo with acetaldehyde, I delineate a constitutional and potentially generational relationship between HCN and those constituents of the reductive citric acid cycle that are direct precursors of amino acids in contemporary metabolism. In this context, the robustness postulate of classical prebiotic chemistry is questioned, and, by an analysis of the (hypothetical) reaction-tree of a stepwise hydrolysis of the HCN-tetramer, it is shown how such a non-robust chemical reaction platform could harbor the potential for the emergence of autocatalytic cycles. It is concluded that the chemistry of HCN should be revisited by focussing on its non-robust parts in order to demonstrate its full potential as one of the possible roots of prebiotic self-organizing chemical processes.
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