Abiotic synthesis of amino acids by x-ray irradiation of simple inorganic gases

Authors: Jun-ichi Takahashi, Teruo Hosokawa, Hitomi Masuda, Takeo Kaneko, Kensei Kobayashi, Takeshi Saito, Yuichi Utsumi

1–2 keV x-ray irradiation was carried out using a synchrotron radiation source on simulated primitive earth environment: a gas mixture of carbon monoxide, nitrogen, and water at atmospheric pressure. High-speed liquid chromatography of the hydrolyzed product solution detected amino acids. The amount of amino acids increased with the total energy absorbed by the gas molecules, and the antipodal optical isomers were generated in almost equal quantities. These imply that the precursors for amino acids were produced through x-ray-induced photolysis of inorganic molecules followed by recombination and polymerization into bio-organic compounds. These results suggest that prebiotic formation of amino acids is possible in primitive earth atmosphere by x ray as well as cosmic ray.

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.123396