The Silicate-Mediated Formose Reaction: Bottom-Up Synthesis of Sugar Silicates

Abstract

Silicate in the Primordial Soup Direct evidence for how prebiotic synthesis of complex organic molecules paved the way for the origin of life is extremely scarce. Thus, studies are mainly limited to controlled simulations of likely reactions in early Earth conditions. Similarly, chemical reactions in the laboratory may generate the products necessary for biosynthesis, but may nevertheless be geochemically irrelevant. Lambert et al. (p. 984 ) show that silicate ions, present in Earth's surface waters at relatively high concentrations, catalyze the formation of four- and six-carbon sugars from simple sugars via the formose reaction. The resulting complexes stabilize the sugar molecules, allowing sugars to accumulate in greater abundance. Silicate stabilization also circumvents the need for the formose reaction to proceed at high temperatures, thus extending the range of possible environments in which life could have originated.