Formation of pyrophosphate, tripolyphosphate, and phosphorylimidazole with the thioester, N, S-diacetylcysteamine, as the condensing agent
Abstract
Reaction of 0.20M orthophosphate with 0.20M N,S-diacetylcysteamine in 0.40M imidazole at pH 7.0 or 8.0 under drying conditions at 50 degree C for 6 days yields pyrophosphate and tripolyphosphate in the presence and absence of 0.10M divalent metal ion. The efficiency of utilization of N,S-diacetylcysteamine in the formation of pyrophosphate linkages ranges from 3 - 8% under the above conditions. The thioester, N,S-diacetylcysteamine, and imidazole are required for phosphoanhydride formation. Reaction of 0.40M orthophosphate with 0.20M N,S-diacetylcysteamine in 0.40M orthophosphate with 0.20M N,S-diacetylcysteamine in 0.40M imidazole at ambient temperature for 6 days yields phosphorylimidazole in the absence or presence of 0.50M MgCl2. Phosphorylimidazole and pyrophosphate are formed in the presence of 0.05M CaCl2; pyrophosphate and tripolyphosphate are formed with 0.15M CaCl2. The efficiency of utilization of N,S-diacetylcysteamine in the formation of pyrophosphate linkages is roughly 7% at 6 days of reaction with 0.15M CaCl2. The thioester, N,S-diacetylcysteamine and imidazole are required for the formation of phosphoanhydrides. The significance of these reactions to molecular evolution is discussed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Weber reported the non-enzymatic synthesis of acyl phosphates from a thioester in the presence of phosphate during the synthesis of pyrophosphate from thioesters.
“Weber [81] reported the non-enzymatic synthesis of acyl phosphates from a thioester in the presence of phosphate during the synthesis of pyrophosphate from thioesters, although the acyl phosphate itself was not isolated.”
From Early bioenergetic evolution (2013) · cites this paper as [81]
Cited by
Sorted by citations
On the origin of biochemistry at an alkaline hydrothermal vent
Martin, W., & Russell, M. J. (2007) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2006.1881 · Cited by 771 · see citing works
Sousa, F. L., Thiergart, T., Landan, G., Nelson-Sathi, S., Pereira, I. A. C., Allen, J. F., Lane, N., & Martin, W. F. (2013) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0088 · Cited by 286 · see citing works
Rethinking early Earth phosphorus geochemistry
Pasek, M. (2008) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · doi:10.1073/pnas.0708205105 · Cited by 271 · see citing works
Are polyphosphates or phosphate esters prebiotic reagents?
Keefe, A., & Miller, S. L. (2004) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/bf00173147 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
The Stepwise Evolution of Early Life Driven by Energy Conservation
Ferry, J. G. (2006) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/msk014 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
“In fact, it has been demonstrated that steps B and C occur without enzymes (Weber 1981, 1982) that may have preceded de novo evolution of primitive ancestors to Pta and Ack.”
BackgroundCommon and Potentially Prebiotic Origin for Precursors of Nucleotide Synthesis and Activation
Fahrenbach, A. C., Giurgiu, C., Tam, C. P., Li, L., Hongo, Y., Aono, M., & Szostak, J. W. (2017) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.7b01562 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
A Chemist’s Perspective on the Role of Phosphorus at the Origins of Life
Fernández-García, C., Coggins, A. J., & Powner, M. (2017) · Life · doi:10.3390/life7030031 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
“…to convert orthophosphate to polyphosphates, and pyrophosphate and triphosphate synthesis has been achieved by various condensing agents in water [32–35], but perhaps the simplest conditions for polyphosphate synthesis are heating phosphates (H 3 PO 4 , NaH 2 PO·H 2 O, NH 4 H 2 PO 4 , etc.) in…”
BackgroundWeber, A. (2004) · Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere · doi:10.1023/a:1006524818404 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
“…energy needed for prebiotic peptide synthesis, amino acid thioesters also could have provided energy for prebiotic phosphoanhydride synthesis, since thioesters have been shown to drive the chemical synthesis of phosphoanhydrides (Weber, 1981; Hartman, 1975; Buvet, 1977; Weber, 1987b; deDuve, 1991).”
BackgroundSelf-citationBarge, L., Doloboff, I. J., Russell, M., VanderVelde, D., White, L., Stucky, G., Baum, M., Zeytounian, J., Kidd, R., & Kanik, I. (2014) · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta · doi:10.1016/j.gca.2013.12.006 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Miller, S. L., & Schlesinger, G. (1993) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/bf00182177 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Biomimetic phosphoryl transfer catalysed by iron(II)-mineral precipitates
de Zwart, I. I., Meade, S. J., & Pratt, A. J. (2004) · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta · doi:10.1016/j.gca.2004.01.028 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
On the Origin of Phosphorylated Biomolecules
Pasek, M., & Kee, T. (2011) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-21625-1_3 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
The prebiotic synthesis and catalytic role of imidazoles and other condensing agents
Oró, J., Basile, B., Cortes, S., Shen, C., & Yamrom, T. (2004) · Origins of Life · doi:10.1007/bf00933663 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Weber, A. (2001) · Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere · doi:10.1023/a:1020588925703 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
“Nonetheless, since model studies of prebiotic chemistry have shown that some of the redox energy of sugars can be captured as energy-rich thioesters capable of driving the synthesis of phosphoanhydrides (Weber, 1984a; Weber, 1984b; Weber, 1981), an early chemometabolism might have been able to convert a small amount o…”
BackgroundSelf-citationOrigins of Life: The Primal Self-Organisation
Egel, H., Lankenau, D., & Mulkidjanian, A. (2011) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-21625-1 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Native metals, electron bifurcation, and CO2 reduction in early biochemical evolution.
Sousa, F. L., Preiner, M., & Martin, W. (2018) · Current Opinion in Microbiology · doi:10.1016/j.mib.2017.12.010 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
“Weber AL: Formation of pyrophosphate, tripolyphosphate, and phosphorylimidazole with the thioester, N,S diacetylcysteamine, as the condensing agent.”
BackgroundKee, T., Bryant, D. E., Herschy, B., Marriott, K. E. R., Cosgrove, N. E., Pasek, M., Atlas, Z., & Cousins, C. (2013) · Life · doi:10.3390/life3030386 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
“Such coupling of Pi(V) moieties does not occur under such mild conditions in the absence of PPi(III) or alternative coupling agents [35–43].”
BackgroundWeber, A. (2005) · Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere · doi:10.1007/bf01808239 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Self-citationPrebiotic formation of ‘energy-rich’ thioesters from glyceraldehyde and N-acetylcysteine
Weber, A. (2005) · Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere · doi:10.1007/bf01809390 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Self-citationMaguire, O. R., Smokers, I. B. A., & Huck, W. (2021) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-25555-x · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Weber, A. (2005) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/bf02257376 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Self-citationPhosphate Solubility and the Cyanate-Mediated Synthesis of Pyrophosphate
Hagan, W. J., Parker, A., Steuerwald, A. J., & Hathaway, M. (2007) · Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres · doi:10.1007/s11084-006-9020-y · Cited by 29 · see citing works
“…are compelling because of their relevance to modern metabolism, but the prebiotic importance to the formation of pyrophosphate is diminished by the high concentrations: 0.1–0.2 M for the thioester, 0.2–0.4 M for the imidazole catalyst and 0.08–0.4 M for inorganic phosphate (Weber 1981, 1982).”
BackgroundInfluentialThermal synthesis and hydrolysis of polyglyceric acid
Weber, A. (2005) · Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere · doi:10.1007/bf01808284 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Grayness of the Origin of Life
Smith, H. H., Hyde, A., Simkus, D., Libby, E., Maurer, S. E., Graham, H., Kempes, C., Lollar, B. S., Chou, L., Ellington, A., et al. (2021) · Life · doi:10.3390/life11060498 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Sanden, S. A., Yi, R.-Q., Hara, M., & McGlynn, S. (2020) · Chemical Communications · doi:10.1039/d0cc04078a · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Uracil‐Catalyzed Synthesis of Acetyl Phosphate: A Photochemical Driver for Protometabolism
Hagan, W. J. (2010) · ChemBioChem · doi:10.1002/cbic.200900433 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Primal Eukaryogenesis: On the Communal Nature of Precellular States, Ancestral to Modern Life
Egel, R. (2012) · Life · doi:10.3390/life2010170 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“bonds of thioester linkages [84,85] which, in turn, are convertible to acyl-phosphates and to pyrophosphate [85-88].”
BackgroundPrebiotic Chemistry: The Role of Trimetaphosphate in Prebiotic Chemical Evolution
Gan, D., Ying, J.-X., & Zhao, Y. (2022) · Frontiers in Chemistry · doi:10.3389/fchem.2022.941228 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“Numerous researchers have attempted to convert orthophosphates to polyphosphates in water using a variety of condensing agents (Weber, 1981, 1982; Hagan et al., 2007).”
BackgroundOrigin of fatty acid synthesis: Thermodynamics and kinetics of reaction pathways
Weber, A. (2006) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/bf02515381 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Self-citationAlanine synthesis from glyceraldehyde and ammonium ion in aqueous solution
Weber, A. (2005) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/bf02115654 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Self-citationWeber, A. (1982) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/bf01733903 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Self-citationOrigin of Life and the Phosphate Transfer Catalyst
Piast, R. W., & Wieczorek, R. M. (2017) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2015.1463 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“…as dehydration condensates, simply by heating/drying cycles, when reactions of condensation become favorable as water leaves the reactants (Weber, 1981, 1982; Baltscheffsky, 1996; Brown and Kornberg, 2004); (v) such an integral part of all contemporary life that phosphorylation reactions…”
Prebiological Evolution and the Metabolic Origins of Life
Pratt, A. J. (2011) · Artificial Life · doi:10.1162/artl_a_00032 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“Surface-catalyzed phosphoryl transfer from acetyl phosphate, available from acetyl thioesters [78], generates pyrophosphate, which accumulates under these conditions [16] and becomes a second source of dehydrating power in water [3] once it can be solubilized.”
BackgroundOligoglyceric acid synthesis by autocondensation of glyceroyl thioester
Weber, A. (2005) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/bf02100011 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Self-citationHermes-Lima, M., Tessis, A. C., & Vieyra, A. (2005) · Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere · doi:10.1007/bf01808057 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Weber, A. (1995) · Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere · doi:10.1007/bf01581573 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Self-citationHermes-Lima, M. (1990) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/bf02106049 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Phosphorylation and acylation transfer reactions: Clues to a dual origin of metabolism
Freire, M. (2020) · Biosyst. · doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104260 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
A way to thioacetate esters compatible with non-oxidative prebiotic conditions
Leqraa, N., Nicolet, Y., Milet, A., & Vallée, Y. (2020) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-71524-7 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Energy-rich glyceric acid oxygen esters: Implications for the origin of glycolysis
Weber, A., & Hsu, V. (2005) · Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere · doi:10.1007/bf01808275 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Self-citationWeber, A. (2005) · Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere · doi:10.1007/bf01808151 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Self-citationPrebiotic formation of iminothioesters. II: Addition of thiophenols to malonic nitriles
Raulin, F., & Lussiana, J. (1984) · Origins of Life · doi:10.1007/bf00933653 · Cited by 6
Thiol-catalyzed formation of lactate and glycerate from glyceraldehyde
Weber, A. (1983) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/bf02099971 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citationEvolutionary Aspects of the Oxido-Reductive Network of Methylglyoxal
Kalapos, M. (2021) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/s00239-021-10031-3 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“In a further step, TEs promoted P ~ P bond formation by virtue of IMI, hydroxyapatite, and phosphates (Weber 1981b, 1982b).”
BackgroundKalapos, M. P., & de Bari, L. (2024) · Biosyst. · doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2024.105288 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Weber, A. (1986) · Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere · doi:10.1007/bf02422076 · Cited by 2
“We have also shown that thioesters can be used to drive the synthesis of phosphoanhydrides, such as pyrophosphate, tripolyphosphate and phosphorylimidazole (Weber, 1981, 1982).”
Self-citationSugars to Acids via Thioesters: A Computational Study
Kua, J., & Karin, J. D. (2025) · Life · doi:10.3390/life15081189 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Weber had also shown that formation of pyrophosphate is facilitated by thioesters providing a direct link between the two energy “currencies” [26,27].”
Sanden, S. A., Butch, C. J., Bartlett, S., Virgo, N., Sekine, Y., & McGlynn, S. (2025) · iScience · doi:10.1016/j.isci.2025.112790 · Cited by 1
- Authors
- Weber, A. L.
- Affiliations
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies (US)
- Corresponding author
- Weber, Arthur L.
- Venue
- Journal of Molecular Evolution
- Published
- 1981-01
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 24-29
- ISSN
- 0022-2844 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-1432
- OpenAlex
- W2022124456
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 3.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Molecular Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Organophosphorus compounds synthesis
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Chemical Reaction Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Biochemical and Molecular Research
- Keywords
- pyrophosphate formation, tripolyphosphate, orthophosphate, imidazole, divalent metal ions, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus metabolism, origin of life, molecular evolution
- MeSH terms
- Cations, Divalent, Chromatography, Paper, Cysteamine, Biological Evolution, Imidazoles, Polyphosphates, Time Factors
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review