2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Role of early Earth materials for origin of life
| Project/Area Number |
18H03729
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Medium-sized Section 17:Earth and planetary science and related fields
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| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
古川 善博 東北大学, 理学研究科, 准教授 (00544107)
小林 敬道 国立研究開発法人物質・材料研究機構, 機能性材料研究拠点, 主幹研究員 (20260028)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | 生命起源 / アミノ酸 / ペプチド / 核酸 / 隕石衝突 / 初期地球 / ホウ素 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The following big and fundamental questions were the subjects to be approached in the present study: How the building blocks of the life were prepared ?; How the protein was prepared?; How the RNA was formed? Through the course of the present project, we demonstrated that the meteorite impacts on the early oceans had significant roles to produce prebiotic amino acids, nucleotides, aldehyde and other essential molecules. These results allow us to propose that the specific geological event promoted ocean/rock/atmosphere interactions, initiating the chemical evolution for origin of life. Those prebiotic molecules were converted into “biotic” to complicated molecules using the environments and minerals on the surface of the early Earth. Our experiments demonstrated that ribose, peptides, and nucleotides can be formed under the simulated Earth environments. We are also proposing the origin of life had never happened without the uniqueness of the early Earth and earth materials.
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| Free Research Field |
生命起源地球科学
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
今回の研究で得られた成果や知見は従来の生命起源研究とは異なる仮説とアプローチで得られたもので、「新説」に結びつくものである。さらに成果は生命起源に関する問題の本質をついており、社会の知的好奇心に大いに貢献できる成果である。衝撃圧縮実験でのアミノ酸生成などは、超高圧有機化学という新たな学術分野を開いたと言える。今回の研究で展開したペプチド合成技術は、新規カーボン素材開発に応用できる可能性があり、社会実装できる東北大学シーズ研究課題としても紹介されている。リボースの安定化、他の糖との選別やヌクレオチド化に関する成果は将来の新規薬品開発や人工生体材料開発にも応用しうる成果である。
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