The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Sep;85(18):6577-80. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.18.6577.
We have shown that ferrous ion at neutral pH photoreduces water to hydrogen with a high quantum yield on excitation with near-ultraviolet light. This simple system also efficiently reduces carbon dioxide (bicarbonate ions) to formaldehyde. Overall, these reactions offer a solution to a dilemma confronting the standard or Oparin-Urey model of the origin of life. If carbon dioxide was the main form of carbon on the primitive earth, the ferrous photoreaction would have provided the reduced carbon necessary to form amino acids and other biogenetic molecules. We believe this system may have been the progenitor to the biological photosynthetic systems.
我们已经证明,亚铁离子在中性 pH 值下,在近紫外光激发下,光解水生成氢气的量子产率很高。该简单体系也能有效地将二氧化碳(碳酸氢根离子)还原为甲醛。总的来说,这些反应为解决生命起源的标准或奥巴林-尤里模型所面临的困境提供了一种解决方案。如果二氧化碳是原始地球上主要的碳形式,亚铁的光反应将为形成氨基酸和其他生物遗传分子提供所需的还原碳。我们相信,该体系可能是生物光合作用系统的前身。