Researchers are looking for the crucial process among various biochemical phenomenon of the evolution of life. In that concern, a group of biochemists from the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Cambridge are working on a demonstration of the network of chemical reactions.
From a press released on the Francis Crick Institute website, this technical demo imitates the important Krebs cycle present in living organisms today. According to their result, they presume that it could explain a crucial step in how life arises on Earth. All the regarding study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
Metabolism is the universal key factor of life because it generates the process by which a living organism gains energy and food. Also, they produce biomolecules, an essential substance for metabolic process in the living cell. However different metabolic pathways prove that this process is quietly similar across all living organisms and species.
A metabolic pathway is actually a sequentially linked chemical process occurred within a cell. However, these processes are catalyzed by enzymes. According to entry level study of biology, Tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle or the Krebs cycle is one of the core metabolic pathways. Because Krebs cycle produces Amino Acid that is a vital molecular component of the enzyme. So Krebs cycle is sequentially more prior than any other metabolic pathways.
From their experimental outcomes, researchers claimed that they detect enzyme-free metabolic pathway closely resembles the Krebs cycle. It is sparked by particles called Sulphate radicals under similar conditions like four billion years ago. Dr. Markus Ralser, a senior author from the Francis Crick Institute said that the demonstrated non-enzymatic predecessor of the Krebs cycle is biologically sensible and efficient. This could help to find the answer of life four billion years ago.
According to an interview, scientist summarized their whole process. They used a normal carbon compound that involved in various points in Krebs cycle and mixed them with iron and Sulphur contained chemicals that found in sediments in the early stage of oceans. Then they applied around 4,850 different screening strategies using mass spectrometer technique to observe chemical reactions.
Practically there is some restraints presence in the process. So initially mixture was nonreactive in nature. However, in presence of compound Peroxydisulfate, researchers detect only twenty-four chemical reactions. Resembling from these less number of reactions pattern researchers finds the similarity of procedure of Krebs cycle in the living organism.
