Potential metabolic viability on asteroid chemistry.

ABSTRACT: While it has been long supposed that asteroids played a role in the delivery of important prebiotic compounds to early Earth, the exact nature of the interactions between asteroidal material and metabolism remains largely unquantified. Pristine material from asteroid sample-return missions provides an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate the potential for the asteroids' chemistry to support the origin and persistence of life. Here we use metabolic network expansion to computationally test the viability of contrasted biochemical networks, including a group of acetogens and methanogens representing primitive metabolisms, on the known chemistry of three asteroids (Itokawa, Ryugu, Bennu) and two meteorites (Murchison, Murray). The chemistry of Murchison and Bennu appears to support the potent

SUBMITTER: Fisher T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12852669 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature