New insights into prebiotic chemistry from Stanley Miller's spark discharge experiments
Abstract
1953 was a banner year for biological chemistry: The double helix structure of DNA was published by Watson and Crick, Sanger's group announced the first amino acid sequence of a protein (insulin) and the synthesis of key biomolecules using simulated primordial Earth conditions has demonstrated by Miller. Miller's studies in particular transformed the study of the origin of life into a respectable field of inquiry and established the basis of prebiotic chemistry, a field of research that investigates how the components of life as we know it can be formed in a variety of cosmogeochemical environments. In this review, I cover the continued advances in prebiotic syntheses that Miller's pioneering work has inspired. The main focus is on recent state-of-the-art analyses carried out on archived samples of Miller's original experiments, some of which had never before been analyzed, discovered in his laboratory material just before his death in May 2007. One experiment utilized a reducing gas mixture and an apparatus configuration (referred to here as the "volcanic" apparatus) that could represent a water-rich volcanic eruption accompanied by lightning. Another included H(2)S as a component of the reducing gas mixture. Compared to the limited number of amino acids Miller identified, these new analyses have found that over 40 different amino acids and amines were synthesized, demonstrating the potential robust formation of important biologic compounds under possible cosmogeochemical conditions. These experiments are suggested to simulate long-lived volcanic island arc systems, an environment that could have provided a stable environment for some of the processes thought to be involved in chemical evolution and the origin of life. Some of the alternatives to the Miller-based prebiotic synthesis and the "primordial soup" paradigm are evaluated in the context of their relevance under plausible planetary conditions.
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If a pool of nucleotide sequences containing a range of length is left to code and replicate, then short sequences will dominate and long ones will become extinct.
“If a pool of nucleotide sequences containing a range of length is left to code and replicate, then short sequences will dominate and long ones will become extinct [70].”
From The Origin of Prebiotic Information System in the Peptide/RNA World: A Simulation Model of the Evolution of Translation and the Genetic Code (2019) · cites this paper as [70]
Hydroxy acids are equally as prebiotically plausible as amino acids, as they may be produced in the same model prebiotic reactions that produce amino acids and are also common in meteorites.
“Hydroxy acids are equally as prebiotically plausible as amino acids, as hydroxy acids may be produced in the same model prebiotic reactions that produce amino acids [56,57], and are also common in meteorites [58].”
From Polyesters as a Model System for Building Primitive Biologies from Non-Biological Prebiotic Chemistry (2020) · cites this paper as [57]
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- Authors
- Bada, J. L.
- Affiliations
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bada, Jeffrey L.
- ORCID
- Bada, Jeffrey L.
- Venue
- Chemical Society Reviews
- Publisher
- Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
- Published
- 2013
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 2186
- ISSN
- 0306-0012 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-4744
- OpenAlex
- W1970805572
- Semantic Scholar
- ee5b3b10e890dc36f2d67a206471924e78b4813e
- Cited by
- 209
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 1.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Chemical Society Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Division of Chemistry
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Keywords
- Miller-Urey experiment, prebiotic chemistry, origin of life, spark discharge, amino acid synthesis, amines, hydrogen sulfide, volcanic island arc, chemical evolution, primordial soup
- MeSH terms
- Amino Acids, Carbon Dioxide, Hydrogen Sulfide, Hydrogen-Ion Concentration, Nitrogen, Evolution, Chemical, Prebiotics
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