Dresden 2017 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 20: Posters - Physics of the Genesis of Life (Focus Session)

BP 20.18: Poster

Dienstag, 21. März 2017, 14:00–16:00, P1A

Temporal climatic fluctuations frozen into chemical non-equilibrium: appearance of high-energy biomolecules — •Jean-Francois Lambert¹, Maguy Jaber², Thomas Georgelin¹, Mariame Akouche¹, Yuriy Sakhno¹, and Marie-Christine Maurel³ — ¹Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, LRS (UMR7197) Case Courrier 178, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France — ²Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, LAMS (UMR8220) Case Courrier 225, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France — ³Sorbonne Universités, UPMC and MNHN, ISYEB (UMR 7205), 57 Rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France

Life relies on metastable molecules: prebiotic biopolymers synthesis was thermodynamically upfield in water. Chemical energy had to be extracted from the environment and stored in the system to synthesize them. This can be done by adsorbing precursor molecules on mineral surfaces and submitting them to drying-wetting cycles. When water activity is low, anabolic condensation reactions become favorable and complex biomolecules are formed. We evidenced the generation of peptides from single amino acids, and of nucleotides from ribose, nucleobases, inorganic phosphate, using in - and ex situ analysis techniques. When higher water activity is restored, complex biomolecules become thermodynamically metastable, but for kinetic reasons are not necessarily degraded. One must study the catalytic effect of surface sites on both condensation and hydrolysis, and maintain a clear distinction between thermodynamics and kinetics. In many cases macroscopic fluctuations of water activity can result in chemical energy storage.