A team of chemists has revealed that key chemical reactions for life may have been possible with ingredients that were likely available on the Earth four billion years ago. The study focused on a series of chemical reactions known as the citric acid cycle (TCA), which are essential for releasing energy in all living cells. However, some chemicals used in the citric acid cycle were likely not present on the early Earth. The new study examines an analog cycle that could have feasibly functioned with ingredients that were available four billion years ago. The findings could be the first step in understanding how the citric acid cycle developed on Earth.

For a press release from the Scripps Research Institute, visit: https://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2018/20180108krishnamurthy.html.

The paper, “Linked cycles of oxidative decarboxylation of glyoxylate as protometabolic analogs of the citric acid cycle,” was published in Nature Communications. The work was performed by members of the Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE). The CCE is a joint effort supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the NASA Astrobiology Program.