Metals likely promoted protometabolism in early ocean alkaline hydrothermal systems.

ABSTRACT: One of the most plausible scenarios of the origin of life assumes the preceding prebiotic autotrophic metabolism in sulfide-rich hydrothermal vent environments. However, geochemical mechanisms to harness the reductive power provided by hydrothermal systems remain to be elucidated. Here, we show that, under a geoelectrochemical condition realizable in the early ocean hydrothermal systems, several metal sulfides (FeS, Ag₂S, CuS, and PbS) undergo hour- to day-scale conversion to the corresponding metals at ≤-0.7 V (versus the standard hydrogen electrode). The electrochemically produced FeS-Fe⁰ assemblage promoted various reactions including certain steps in the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle with efficiencies far superior to those due to pure FeS. The threshold poten

SUBMITTER: Kitadai N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6584212 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature