Could organic peroxides have some role in the origin of life?
Can we have some critical and rigorous discussion whether in favor or against any role of peroxide in origin of life.
One cannot rule out any possibilty. Organic materials are the essence of life and among them there are e.g. the alkenes & the ethers which form (R-O-O-R) easily. The facile homolytic cleavage of the O-O bond will initiate chain reactions of many sorts& the start of life must have depended on reactive intermediates. Inertness of materials would have lead to deadlock & we have to assume existence of active materials at the start of life & of course,beyond.
Rightly said, we cannot rule out the possibility of the role of peroxides in Origins of Life.
In the Universe, oxygen is the third most widespread element, while on Earth it is the most abundant one.
Moreover, oxygen is a major constituent of all biopolymers fundamental to living organisms. Besides O2, reactive oxygen species (ROS), among them hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), are also important reactants in the present aerobic metabolism. According to a widely accepted hypothesis, aerobic metabolism and many other
reactions/pathways involving O2 appeared after the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. Slesak et al. formulated a hypothesis that the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) was at least able to tolerate O2 and detoxify ROS in a primordial environment. A comparative analysis was carried out of a number of the O2-and H2O2-involving metabolic reactions that occur in strict anaerobes, facultative anaerobes, and aerobes. The results indicate that the most likely LUCA possessed O2-and H2O2-involving pathways, mainly reactions to remove ROS, and had, at least in part, the components of aerobic respiration. Based on this, the presence of a
low, but significant, quantity of H2O2 and O2 should be taken into account in the models of the early Archean atmosphere and oceans and the evolution of life.
- ASTROBIOLOGY, 2012, 12, 775-784
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