title: Primordial soup was edible: abiotically produced Miller-Urey mixture supports bacterial growth.
abstract: Sixty years after the seminal Miller-Urey experiment that abiotically produced a mixture of racemized amino acids, we provide a definite proof that this primordial soup, when properly cooked, was edible for primitive organisms. Direct admixture of even small amounts of Miller-Urey mixture strongly inhibits E. coli bacteria growth due to the toxicity of abundant components, such as cyanides. However, these toxic compounds are both volatile and extremely reactive, while bacteria are highly capable of adaptation. Consequently, after bacterial adaptation to a mixture of the two most abundant abiotic amino acids, glycine and racemized alanine, dried and reconstituted MU soup was found to support bacterial growth and even accelerate it compared to a simple mixture of the two amino acids. Therefore, primordial Miller-Urey soup was perfectly suitable as a growth media for early life forms.
authors.affiliation: Division of Physiological Chemistry I, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Scheelesväg 2, SE-17 177 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Xueshu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Division of Physiological Chemistry I, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Scheelesväg 2, SE-17 177 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Backman
authors.affiliation: Department of Organic Chemistry, Moscow State M. V. Lomonosov University, 119991, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Albert T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Lebedev
authors.affiliation: LECO Corporation, 3000 Lakeview Avenue, St Joseph, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Viatcheslav B
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Artaev
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Liying
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Leopold L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Ilag
authors.affiliation: Division of Physiological Chemistry I, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Scheelesväg 2, SE-17 177 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Roman A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Zubarev
mesh_terms: D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology; D000069497:Origin of Life
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media