Deuterolysis of Amino Acid Precursors: Evidence for Hydrogen Cyanide Polymers as Protein Ancestors
- 11 November 1977
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 198 (4317), 622-625
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.21452
Abstract
Deuterolysis experiments suggest that hydrogen cyanide polymers rather than aminoacetonitriles are major precursors of alpha-amino acids obtained from spark reactions and other studies on chemical evolution. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the original heteropolypeptides on the earth were synthesized spontaneously from hydrogen cyanide and water without the intervening formation of alpha-amino acids.This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
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