Prebiotically plausible chemoselective pantetheine synthesis in water

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fairchild, Jasper; Islam, Saidul; Singh, Jyoti; Bucar, Dejan-Kresimir; Powner, Matthew W.
• 署名单位: University of London; University College London; University of London; King's College London; University of London; King's College London
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8174
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adk4432
• 发表日期: 2024-02-23
• 页码: 911-918
• 关键词: gene-expression; in-vivo; cell; reveals; calcium; protein; transgenesis; refinement; circuits; program

摘要

Coenzyme A (CoA) is essential to all life on Earth, and its functional subunit, pantetheine, is important in many origin-of-life scenarios, but how pantetheine emerged on the early Earth remains a mystery. Earlier attempts to selectively synthesize pantetheine failed, leading to suggestions that simpler thiols must have preceded pantetheine at the origin of life. In this work, we report high-yielding and selective prebiotic syntheses of pantetheine in water. Chemoselective multicomponent aldol, iminolactone, and aminonitrile reactions delivered spontaneous differentiation of pantoic acid and proteinogenic amino acid syntheses, as well as the dihydroxyl, gem-dimethyl, and beta-alanine-amide moieties of pantetheine in dilute water. Our results are consistent with a role for canonical pantetheine at the outset of life on Earth.