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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 49: Physics of the Genesis of Life - Focus Session organized by Moritz Kreysing and Dieter Braun

BP 49.12: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 23. März 2017, 12:45–13:00, SCH A251

Driving the system out of equilibrium - a key to understand the formamide-based model of the origin of life — •Judit Šponer — Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 135, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic

Thermodynamic stability of prebiotic building blocks is generally considered to be one of the decisive factors controlling their accumulation in the prebiotic pool. On the other hand higher stability means lower reactivity. How to challenge this apparent paradox in prebiotic chemistry? A simple formamide-based origin model[1], I am going to outline in my talk, provides a tentative answer to this question. This model is based on a strongly non-equilibrium chemistry, in which the stepwise decrease of the temperature of the prebiotic environment drives those chemical transformations which could lead to more and more complex molecular entities. Thus, we suggest that each synthetic step took place at different temperatures, i.e. precursors that formed and accumulated at a higher temperature, become thermodynamically unstable and thus more reactive at a lower temperature.

[1] Šponer JE, Šponer J, Nováková O, Brabec V, Šedo O, Zdráhal Z, Costanzo G, Pino S, Saladino R, Di Mauro E. Emergence of the first catalytic oligonucleotides in a formamide-based origin scenario. Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22:3572-3586 and Šponer JE, Šponer J, Di Mauro E. New evolutionary insights into the non-enzymatic origin of RNA oligomers. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: RNA 2016: DOI: 10.1002/wrna.1400.