Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China.
Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2010 Sep 21;12(35):10147-53. doi: 10.1039/c002414g. Epub 2010 Jun 24.
There is no doubt that water is pivotal to life. Yet, as the emergence of life is still a big challenge in science, the detailed involvement of water in that process is not well recognized. Following the clues provided by recent single-molecule studies on DNA, we attempt to elucidate the possible roles of water in the prebiotic chemical evolution. Water has long been recognized as an important reactant in the Miller-Urey experiment and then as the only solvent of the primitive soup. Besides that, water also played a vital role in the prebiotic chemical evolution: water is the important criterion in the combinatorial library screening for self-assembling macromolecules. With this notion, the uniformity of biochemistry for all terrestrial life may be explained. A possible roadmap from the inorganic world to the origin of life is also discussed.
毫无疑问，水是生命的关键。然而，由于生命的出现仍然是科学上的一个巨大挑战，水在这一过程中的详细参与还没有得到很好的认识。根据最近对 DNA 的单分子研究提供的线索，我们试图阐明水在原始化学进化中的可能作用。水一直被认为是米勒-尤里实验中的重要反应物，然后是原始汤的唯一溶剂。除此之外，水在原始化学进化中也起着至关重要的作用：水是自组装大分子组合文库筛选的重要标准。有了这个概念，所有陆地生命的生物化学的统一性就可以得到解释。还讨论了从无机世界到生命起源的可能途径。
