Nov. 29, 2017
Research Highlight

A Plausible Prebiotic Origin of Glyoxylate

Glyoxylate is thought to be an important building block of life, yet its availability on Earth during the time of life’s origins is not well understood. A team of scientists has demonstrated that glyoxylate can be formed under specific conditions through a reaction between glycine and formaldehyde in water. The study provides insight into how glyoxylate might have been produced on the early Earth.

Glyoxylate (C<sub>2</sub>HO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup>) 2D structure.
Glyoxylate (C2HO3-) 2D structure.Image credit: NASA Astrobiology.

The study, “A Plausible Prebiotic Origin of Glyoxylate: Nonenzymatic Transamination Reactions of Glycine with Formaldehyde,” was published in the journal Synlett. The work was performed at the NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. The CCE is a collaborative program supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the NASA Astrobiology Program.