The DOI matches its Crossref record; 52 of the 53 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Native iron reduces CO2 to intermediates and end-products of the acetyl-CoA pathway
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Abstract
Autotrophic theories for the origin of life propose that CO 2 was the carbon source for primordial biosynthesis. Among the six known CO 2 fixation pathways in nature, the acetyl-CoA (AcCoA; or Wood-Ljungdahl) pathway is the most ancient, and relies on transition metals for catalysis. Modern microbes that use the AcCoA pathway typically fix CO 2 with electrons from H 2, which requires complex flavin-based electron bifurcation. This presents a paradox: how could primitive metabolic systems have fixed CO 2 before the origin of proteins? Here, we show that native transition metals (Fe 0, Ni 0 and Co 0) selectively reduce CO 2 to acetate and pyruvate-the intermediates and end-products of the AcCoA pathway-in near millimolar concentrations in water over hours to days using 1-40 bar CO 2 and at temperatures from 30 to 100 °C. Geochemical CO 2 fixation from native metals could have supplied critical C 2 and C 3 metabolites before the emergence of enzymes.
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“Second, Fe0, Ni0, Ni3Fe and silica‐supported Co‐Fe alloys can replace the proteins that synthesize formate, acetate, pyruvate from H2 and CO2 via the acetyl‐CoA pathway [60, 61, 62, 63, 64] (Fig. 1C).”
From Evidence for corrin biosynthesis in the last universal common ancestor (2025) · cites this paper as [61]
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“Moreover, only one of those seven, again only the acetyl CoA pathway, operates in vitro to form its main products – formate, acetate and pyruvate [49, 90] – from H2 and CO2 without enzymes or cofactors, using only metals or minerals that occur in hydrothermal vents as catalysts [60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 125].”
From Evidence for corrin biosynthesis in the last universal common ancestor (2025) · cites this paper as [61]
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“In fact, both the TCA and the WLP may have a non-enzymatic origin, testifying to their potential emergence long before LUCA (Ralser 2018;Varma et al. 2018).”
From The Emergence of Life (2019) · cites this paper as Varma et al. 2018
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“The fact that the oldest carbon fixation pathway known among organisms today, the acetyl-CoA pathway, uses H2 as an electron donor and CO2 as an electron acceptor, suggests that an acetyl-CoA-like pathway was present from the earliest stages [135,136,137] (Figure 4, step 1c).”
From ‘Whole Organism’, Systems Biology, and Top-Down Criteria for Evaluating Scenarios for the Origin of Life (2021) · cites this paper as [136]
In the citing paper
“the oldest carbon fixation pathway known among organisms today, the acetyl-CoA pathway [135,136], uses H2 as an electron donor and CO2 as an electron acceptor”
From ‘Whole Organism’, Systems Biology, and Top-Down Criteria for Evaluating Scenarios for the Origin of Life (2021) · cites this paper as [136]
In the citing paper
“In particular, the importance of relevant metals and metal clusters in the Hadean has settled in experimental work that recreates the origin of biochemistry in vitro, including carbon cycling [98,103,153], nitrogen fixation [154], ribosomal translation [155], and even the generation of pH gradients [156].”
From The Future of Origin of Life Research: Bridging Decades-Old Divisions (2020) · cites this paper as [153]
In the citing paper
“Pyruvate and glyoxylate have been shown to be accessible [140,141] by CO2 fixation through abiotic processes.”
From Prebiotic Reaction Networks in Water (2020) · cites this paper as [141]
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Citations
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Research works printed but not linked: 1
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Striking while the iron is hot: Iron metabolism and ferroptosis in neurodegeneration
Masaldan, S., Bush, A. I., Devos, D., Rolland, A., & Moreau, C. (2018) · Free Radical Biology and Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2018.09.033 · Cited by 494
Synthesis and breakdown of universal metabolic precursors promoted by iron
Muchowska, K. B., Varma, S. J., & Moran, J. (2019) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1151-1 · Cited by 365
Self-citationNonenzymatic Metabolic Reactions and Life’s Origins
Muchowska, K. B., Varma, S. J., & Moran, J. (2020) · Chemical Reviews · doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00191 · Cited by 317
Self-citationA hydrogen-dependent geochemical analogue of primordial carbon and energy metabolism
Preiner, M., Igarashi, K., Muchowska, K. B., Yu, M., Varma, S. J., Kleinermanns, K., Nobu, M. K., Kamagata, Y., Tüysüz, H., Moran, J., et al. (2020) · Nature Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1038/s41559-020-1125-6 · Cited by 272
Self-citationAutocatalytic chemical networks at the origin of metabolism
Xavier, J. C., Hordijk, W., Kauffman, S., Steel, M., & Martin, W. F. (2020) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.2377 · Cited by 196
Metadata
- Authors
- Varma, S. J., Muchowska, K. B., Chatelain, P., & Moran, J.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Moran, Joseph
- Venue
- Nature Ecology & Evolution
- Published
- 2018-04-23
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1019-1024
- ISSN
- 2397-334X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5969571
- OpenAlex
- W2799784280
- Cited by
- 235
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 22
- FWCI
- 13.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Ecology & Evolution (publishedVersion)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) (acceptedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- European Commission (HORIZON2020)
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-10-LABX-0026)
- Université de Strasbourg
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
- Physical Sciences › Chemical Engineering › Process Chemistry and Technology › Carbon dioxide utilization in catalysis
- Keywords
- acetyl-CoA pathway, CO2 fixation, native iron, metal catalysis, CO2 reduction, acetyl-CoA, origin of metabolism
- MeSH terms
- Acetyl Coenzyme A, Carbon Dioxide, Iron, Oxidation-Reduction
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