UC Santa Barbara researchers are building out the repertoire of chemical reactions, using light. In a paper published in the journal Nature, chemistry professor Yang Yang and collaborators at the […]
amino acid
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Status Report
On The Origin Of Infrared Bands Attributed To Tryptophan In Spitzer Observations Of IC 348
Infrared emission features toward interstellar gas of the IC 348 star cluster in Perseus have been recently proposed to originate from the amino acid tryptophan.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Status Report
The Extent of Formation of Organic Molecules in the Comae of Comets Showing Relatively High Activity
Comets are a rich reservoir of complex organic molecules. Ground and space-based observatories have recently greatly enhanced the cometary molecular inventory.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Prebiotic Vitamin B3 Synthesis in Carbonaceous Planetesimals
Aqueous chemistry within carbonaceous planetesimals is promising for synthesizing prebiotic organic matter essential to all life. Meteorites derived from these planetesimals delivered these life building blocks to the early Earth, […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report
Detection Of Possible Glycine Precursor Molecule Methylamine Towards The Hot Molecular Core G358.93−0.03 MM1
The search for the simplest amino acid, glycine (NH2CH2COOH), in the interstellar medium (ISM), has become a never-ending story for astrochemistry and astrophysics researchers because that molecule plays a possible […]
![A) Alanine synthesis using a Strecker mechanism, where the wiggly bonds indicate indeterminate stereochemistry. (B) Illustrating a calcium-promoted step on the reaction pathway where a PNC effect from Ca2+ could influence chiral preference at the Cα carbon (highlighted by circling in dashed blue). (C) An example of an Ala-bound calcium complex in a metal-mediated autocatalytic pathway, where L and L′ could be water, a bifurcating carboxylate from another amino acid [5], or other ligands. -- Life](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Influence-of-the.png?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Influence of the Weak Nuclear Force on Metal-Promoted Autocatalytic Strecker Synthesis of Amino Acids: Formation of a Chiral Pool of Precursors for Prebiotic Peptide and Protein Synthesis
Natural chiral amino acids typically adopt an L structural configuration. While a preference for specific molecular chiralities is observed throughout biology and cellular chemistry, the origins of this preference are […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Venus
Stability of 20 Biogenic Amino Acids in Concentrated Sulfuric Acid: Implications for the Habitability of Venus’ Clouds
Scientists have long speculated about the potential habitability of Venus, not at the 700K surface, but in the cloud layers located at 48-60 km altitudes, where temperatures match those found […]
Posted inAstropharmacy / Biotechnology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Press Release
New Chemical Process Makes It Easier To Craft Amino Acids That Don’t Exist In Nature
Every protein in your body is made up of the same 20 building blocks called amino acids. But just because nature is stuck with a limited toolkit doesn’t mean humans […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Status Report
Xeno Amino Acids: A Look Into Biochemistry As We Don’t Know It
Would Another Origin Of Life Resemble Earth’s Biochemical Use Of Amino Acids? Here we review current knowledge at three levels:
![(A) The proposed active complex proposed by Rode et al. (1990) for the SIPF reaction for a protonated and neutral alanine molecule [18]. (B) Another plausible SIPF active complex between two neutral alanine molecules in a cis configuration as proposed by Rimola et al. (2007) [20]. Here, cis refers to the relative position of the N (or equivalently O) atoms on the same side of the plane containing the Cu atom. In this figure, red denotes oxygen, blue denotes nitrogen, gray denotes carbon, light gray denotes hydrogen, orange denotes copper, and green denotes chlorine. -- Life](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TheRoleOf.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
The Role of the CuCl Active Complex in the Stereoselectivity of the Salt-Induced Peptide Formation Reaction: Insights from Density Functional Theory Calculations
The salt-induced peptide formation (SIPF) reaction is a prebiotically plausible mechanism for the spontaneous polymerization of amino acids into peptides on early Earth.