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Which Organic Compounds Could Have Occurred on the Prebiotic Earth?
Abstract
In the past three decades, a wide variety of experiments have been designed to simulate conditions on the primitive earth and to demonstrate how organic compounds that made up the first living organisms were synthesized. This paper reviews this work and indicates the status of such syntheses. There is too much material to review in detail, and the reader is directed to a number of more complete discussions (Miller and Orgel 1974; Kenyon and Steinman 1969; Lemmon 1970).
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“It is notable that aspartic acid is one of the more abundant amino acids found in meteorites and synthesized in Miller-Urey type prebiotic simulations [62,63].”
From The eightfold path to non-enzymatic RNA replication (2012) · cites this paper as [63]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Miller, S. L.
- Affiliations
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Corresponding author
- Miller, S.L.
- Venue
- Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology
- Publisher
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Published
- 1987-01-01
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 0
- Pages
- 17-27
- ISSN
- 0091-7451 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-4456
- OpenAlex
- W2017119083
- Cited by
- 182
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 6 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 10
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Keywords
- prebiotic chemistry, origin of life, organic synthesis, Miller-Urey experiment, early Earth, nucleotides
- MeSH terms
- Origin of Life, Amino Acids, Catalysis, Purines, Pyrimidines, Radiation Effects, Thermodynamics
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