Chemical systems, chemical contiguity and the emergence of life

• Terrence P. Kee and
• Pierre-Alain Monnard

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 1551–1563, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.155

• environment; prebiotic synthesis; protocell; Review Introduction Research in the origins of life field or abiogenesis (emergence of life from non-life) attempts to answer a question that has fascinated humanity for millennia: Where do we come from? Whereas early attempts were more metaphysical in nature

• environmental fluctuations (F). Once stable over long time periods, these systems would be clearly the first complete embodiment of a protocell (Figure 1B). Plain arrows relate to a self-assembly process, dotted arrows the prebiotic synthesis of chemicals, dashed arrows the disruption of a chemical system, the

Nucleic acids through condensation of nucleosides and phosphorous acid in the presence of sulfur

• Tuomas Lönnberg

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 670–673, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.67

• internucleosidic phosphorothioate linkages. Nearly 80% of these linkages have the natural 3´,5´-regiochemistry. Together with the recent evidence of phosphite in the Archean ocean, these results lend support to the hypothesis that phosphorous acid and its salts may have played a key role in the prebiotic synthesis