Hydration–dehydration interactions between glycine and anhydrous salts: Implications for a chemical evolution of life

Polymerizations of organic monomers including amino acids, nucleotides and monosaccharides are essential processes for chemical evolution of life. Since these reactions proceed with “dehydration” reactions, they are possibly promoted if combined with thermodynamically favorable “hydration” reactions of minerals and salts. To test the possibility, we conducted heating experiments of the simplest amino acid “glycine (Gly)” mixed with four simple anhydrous salts (MgSO4, SrCl2, BaCl2 and Li2SO4) at 140 °C up to 20 days. Gly polymerization was strongly promoted by mixing with the salts in the order of MgSO4 > SrCl2 > BaCl2 > Li2SO4. Up to 6-mer of Gly polymers were synthesized in the Gly–MgSO4 mixture, and a total yield of Gly polymers attained about 7% of the initial amount of Gly by the 20 days heating. The total yield was about 200 times larger than that from the heating of Gly alone. XRD measurements of the Gly–MgSO4 mixture revealed the generation of MgSO4 monohydrate during Gly polymerization. These observations indicate that Gly polymerization was promoted by the salt hydrations through the hydration–dehydration interactions. Based on the observations, we tried to find a relationship between thermodynamic characteristics of the interactions and the promotion effects of each salt on Gly polymerization. It was found that the salts having lower hydration ΔrG0 (easier to hydrate) promote Gly polymerization more strongly. The relationship was used to estimate promotion effects of simple oxide minerals on Gly polymerization. The estimations were consistent with previous observations about the effects of these minerals on Gly polymerization. The fact suggests that the hydration–dehydration interactions between amino acids and minerals are an important mechanism for amino acids’ polymerizations on minerals.