[meteorite-list] Meteorite Impacts Can Create DNA Building Blocks

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2015 16:00:31 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201511200000.tAK00VF3008044_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/tu-mi081715.php

Public Release: 18-Aug-2015

Meteorite impacts can create DNA building blocks
Tohoku University

A new study shown that meteorite impacts on ancient oceans may have created
nucleobases and amino acids. Researchers from Tohoku University, National
Institute for Materials Science and Hiroshima University discovered this
after conducting impact experiments simulating a meteorite hitting an
ancient ocean (Fig. 1).

With precise analysis of the products recovered after impacts, the team
found the formation of nucleobases and amino acids from inorganic compounds.
The research is reported this week in the journal Earth and Planetary
Science Letters.

All the genetic information of modern life is stored in DNA as sequences
of nucleobases. However, formation of nucleobases from inorganic compounds
available on prebiotic Earth had been considered to be difficult.

In 2009, this team reported the formation of the simplest amino acid,
glycine, by simulating meteorite impacts. This time, they replaced the
carbon source with bicarbonate and conducted hypervelocity impact experiments
at 1 km/s using a single stage propellant gun (Figure 2).

They found the formation of a far larger variety of life's building blocks,
including two kinds of nucleobases and nine kinds of proteinogenic amino
acids. The results suggest a new route for how genetic molecules may have
first formed on Earth.

###

Publication Details

Title: Nucleobases and amino acids formation through impacts of meteorites
on the early ocean.
Authors: Furukawa Y., Nakazawa H., Sekine T., Kobayashi T., Kakegawa T.

Journal: Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2015), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X15004926

Contacts:

Dr. Yoshihiro Furukawa
Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Science, Tohoku University
Email: furukawa at m.tohoku.ac.jp
Tel: +81-22-795-3453

Dr. Takamichi Kobayashi
Principal Researcher, Ultra-High Pressure Processes Group
Materials Processing Unit, National Institute for Materials Science
Email: KOBAYASHI.Takamichi at nims.go.jp
Tel: +81-29-860-4419

Dr. Toshimori Sekine
Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary System Science, Hiroshima
University
Email: toshimori-sekine at hiroshima-u.ac.jp
Tel: +81-82-424-7474
Received on Thu 19 Nov 2015 07:00:31 PM PST