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

[Ron Baalke]

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.

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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