Catalysis of peptide formation by inorganic oxides: high efficiency of alumina under mild conditions on the Earth-like planets.

ABSTRACT

Amino acid condensation catalyzed by inorganic oxides is a widely recognized way for prebiotic peptide formation. Silica and alumina are widely distributed in the Earth-like planets' crust as minerals of different complexity, and thus are attractive model catalysts for the studies of abiotic peptide synthesis. Experiments performed in other laboratories have shown that this process can be efficient at > 80 degrees C, which is not easy to find on the planetary surface in combination with sufficient concentrations of amino acids and necessary catalysts. In the present work we tested catalytic activity of three forms of alumina (which proved to be an efficient catalyst for this process) in the intermolecular condensation of L-alanine. We expanded the temperature interval down to 55 degrees C and used the simplest permanent heating procedure, without employing fluctuating drying/wetting conditions. The most important finding is that even under the lowest temperature considered (i.e. 55 degrees C), short peptide formation can be detected already after 10-30 days of heating. This fact implies that the abiotic peptide formation might occur in a wide variety of planetary environments, without need for high temperatures, given the presence of amino acid building blocks and alumina-containing minerals.