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Prebiotic synthesis of phosphoenol pyruvate by α-phosphorylation-controlled triose glycolysis

Powner, MW; Coggins, AJ; (2017) Prebiotic synthesis of phosphoenol pyruvate by α-phosphorylation-controlled triose glycolysis. Nature Chemistry , 9 (4) pp. 310-317. 10.1038/nchem.2624. Green open access

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Abstract

Phosphoenol pyruvate is the highest-energy phosphate found in living organisms and is one of the most versatile molecules in metabolism. Consequently, it is an essential intermediate in a wide variety of biochemical pathways, including carbon fixation, the shikimate pathway, substrate-level phosphorylation, gluconeogenesis and glycolysis. Triose glycolysis (generation of ATP from glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate via phosphoenol pyruvate) is among the most central and highly conserved pathways in metabolism. Here, we demonstrate the efficient and robust synthesis of phosphoenol pyruvate from prebiotic nucleotide precursors, glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde. Furthermore, phosphoenol pyruvate is derived within an α-phosphorylation controlled reaction network that gives access to glyceric acid 2-phosphate, glyceric acid 3-phosphate, phosphoserine and pyruvate. Our results demonstrate that the key components of a core metabolic pathway central to energy transduction and amino acid, sugar, nucleotide and lipid biosyntheses can be reconstituted in high yield under mild, prebiotically plausible conditions.

Type: Article
Title: Prebiotic synthesis of phosphoenol pyruvate by α-phosphorylation-controlled triose glycolysis
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2624
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2624
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2016© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. The final publication is available at Nature Chemistry (2016) via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2624
Keywords: Organic chemistry, Chemical origin of life
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Chemistry
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1520873
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