It’s been known by everyone that Ultraviolet (UV) radiation of Sun is hazardous, exposure to UV rays can cause eye damage and skin cancers. But, in recent study scientists unearthed the truth that the life-threatening UV radiation played an important role in forming life on Earth.
Scientists from the University of Colorado, Boulder started their studies on the basic building blocks of life and found, billions of years ago in this prebiotic, oxygen-poor world the sun was the primary source of energy just like today. In the journal of Astrobiology Magazine, they have described that Solar UV rays may have provided the impact on the simple organic molecules to transfer into more complex structures.
Lead researcher and physical chemistry’s doctoral candidate of UCB, Rebecca Rapf said in her report,“We're looking at examples in the literature and from our own lab where sunlight has been used to build complex molecules from simple, prebiotically-available starting materials”. The earlier atmosphere was used to get more penetrated by UV rays as there were no signs of Oxygen and ozone.
Rapf explained that the UV rays of sunlight could be destructive for some biomolecules but it was still useful in early life chemistry. When an external energy breaks a molecule then the charged particles become more reactive. Those reactive chunks recombine themselves into more complex high-energy molecules.
During the study, researchers conducted a study on Pyruvic acid, which is known as the center of the key metabolic pathway of life. According to Space, researchers dissolved Pyruvic acid in water and illuminated with UV rays under the oxygen-limited condition and the acid reacted itself to create larger molecules.
Rapf and her advisor Veronica Valda noticed the same kind of reactions in 2-oxooctanoic acid. However, 2-oxooctanoic acid is an example of a simple lipid but when it was exposed to UV then it was transferred into dihexyltartaric acid. Compared to 2-oxooctanoic acid, dihexyltartaric acid has different UV absorption rate because it has two alkyl chains. To assemble protocell, double-tailed lipids are the most important material as it can assemble itself into membrane-enclosed compartments.
