SKM 2023 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 11: Poster Session I

BP 11.29: Poster

Dienstag, 28. März 2023, 12:30–15:30, P1

Heat flows through rock cracks purify >50 building blocks of life — •Paula Aikkila, Thomas Matreux, Dieter Braun, and Christof Mast — Systems Biophysics, LMU Munich, Germany

A crucial step during the origins of life is the emergence of biopolymer building blocks. However, the optimal reaction pathways for their formation usually require feedstocks of pure reactants and defined purification and mixing steps to suppress unwanted side reactions and allow for high product yields. We show that heat flows through thin crack-like compartments purify complex mixtures of prebiotically relevant building blocks with high selectivity by bringing together geomaterials, chemistry and microfluidics in a realistic environment. This non-equilibrium process differentially enriches prebiotically relevant building blocks, and distinguishes even mass-identical molecules. Using the experimentally determined thermophoretic properties, we model geologically plausible networks of connected heat flow compartments. Our results show how geologically driven non-equilibria could purify compounds and implement downstream mixing for the origin of life.