Synthesis Of Prebiotic Amino Acids

The main content of this thesis is to synthesize abiotic amino acids viasimulating the physical and chemical environment of deep-sea hot springs. Theexperimental result could provide clues to verify the submarine hydrothermal theory.In order to simulate the warm spring conditions, we designed a series ofmicrowave-assisted amino acid synthesis involving direct reactions between succinicacid and ammonia in the presence of the magnetite catalyst. For the first time, asparticacid, representing a four carbon backbone-amino acid, has been investigated in thereaction of carboxylic acid and ammonia. Aspartic acid and glycine were synthesizedfrom succinic acid and ammonia under hydrothermal conditions in the presence ofmagnetite. Among the parameters investigated, time and temperature significantlyaffected the yield of aspartic acid and glycine. Reaction time has opposite effects onthe yield of aspartic acid and glycine due to their difference in complexities. Ratherthan a limitation, the temperature dependency should be seen as a possible cause forthe diversity of amino acids and furthermore the diversity of species. This provesagain the important role that hot submarine springs played in the origin of life.In this study, we were able to employ isobutyric to synthesize glycine fromammonia and phthalimide respectively in the presence of the magnetite catalyst. Theresults of experiment show that, although the amount of glycine is lower in“isobutyric-phthalimide”, phthalimide and ammonia may play the same role inprocess of origin of life. The phthalimide is very likely to replace ammonia to providethe nitrogen source of the origin of life on earth.Thus, the conversion of simple inorganic compounds to the important prebioticorganic molecules was successful under the super high pressure hydrothermalconditions which simulated submarine environment, and provided strong evidence toverify the hydrothermal theory of the origin of life. And our result provides a newroute for synthesis of amino acid under the hydrothermal condition.