from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Many theories are currently being accepted as possible explanations for the origins of life on early Earth (e.g. Metabolism-first world, Zinc world, Thioester world, RNA world and others). However, discovered enzyme-mimetic properties of nanoparticles may lead to reconsideration of these theories. Recently, we postulated that one of the stages of chemical evolution could have been associated with nanozymatic activity of different nanoparticles that could form primitive prebiotic photodynamic redox chemical networks with proto-enzymatic activity. Our theory (Nanoparticle-based World) assumes that chemical evolution passed through the nanoparticle-assisted stage and could have led to sustainable metabolism. Formamide-based prebiotic chemistry assumes that formamide could have accumulated in sufficient amounts to serve as a feedstock and reaction medium for the synthesis of the first biogenic molecules. In this work, UV-induced formation (prebiotic scenario) of nanoparticles with xanthine oxidase like activity was demonstrated. All reactants (thiol-containing compounds, metals ions - zinc and cadmium, ammonia and fomamide) were highly probably present on early Earth.
Keywords: Nanoparticles, formamide, Origin of life, UV radiations, metal ions, thiols© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.