title: Potassium ions are more effective than sodium ions in salt induced peptide formation.
abstract: Prebiotic peptide formation under aqueous conditions in the presence of metal ions is one of the plausible triggers of the emergence of life. The salt-induced peptide formation reaction has been suggested as being prebiotically relevant and was examined for the formation of peptides in NaCl solutions. In previous work we have argued that the first protocell could have emerged in KCl solution. Using HPLC-MS/MS analysis, we found that K(+) is more than an order of magnitude more effective in the L-glutamic acid oligomerization with 1,1'-carbonyldiimidazole in aqueous solutions than the same concentration of Na(+), which is consistent with the diffusion theory calculations. We anticipate that prebiotic peptides could have formed with K(+) as the driving force, not Na(+), as commonly believed.
authors.affiliation: St Petersburg Academic University - Nanotechnology Research and Education Centre RAS, 8/3 Khlopin str, 194021, St Petersburg, Russia. dubina@spbau.ru
authors.forename: Michael V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Dubina
authors.forename: Sergey Yu
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Vyazmin
authors.forename: Vitali M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Boitsov
authors.forename: Eugene N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Nikolaev
authors.forename: Igor A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.forename: Alexey S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Kononikhin
authors.forename: Igor E
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Eliseev
authors.forename: Yuri V
authors.initials: YV
authors.lastname: Natochin
mesh_terms: D002414:Cations, Monovalent; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000737:chemistry; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D011188:Potassium / Q000737:chemistry*; D012964:Sodium / Q000737:chemistry*; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D002414:Cations, Monovalent; D007093:Imidazoles; D010455:Peptides; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D012965:Sodium Chloride; C006900:N,N-carbonyldiimidazole; D012964:Sodium; D011188:Potassium
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