MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QH, U.K.
J Am Chem Soc. 2021 May 19;143(19):7219-7236. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c01839. Epub 2021 Apr 21.
Solar radiation is the principal source of energy available to Earth and has unmatched potential for the synthesis of organic material from primordial molecular building blocks. As well as providing the energy for photochemical synthesis of (proto)biomolecules of interest in origins of life-related research, light has also been found to often provide remarkable selectivity in these processes, for molecules that function in extant biology and against those that do not. As such, light is heavily implicated as an environmental input on the nascent Earth that was important for the emergence of complex yet selective chemical systems underpinning life. Reactivity and selectivity in photochemical prebiotic synthesis are discussed, as are their implications for origins of life scenarios and their plausibility, and the future directions of this research.
太阳辐射是地球可用的主要能源，并且具有从原始分子构建块合成有机物质的无与伦比的潜力。除了为生命起源研究中感兴趣的（原）生物分子的光化学合成提供能量外，光在这些过程中也经常提供显著的选择性，对那些在现存生物学中起作用的分子和那些不起作用的分子。因此，光被强烈暗示为新生地球上的一种环境输入，对于在生命支持下出现复杂但具有选择性的化学系统是很重要的。本文讨论了光化学生成前体的反应性和选择性，以及它们对生命起源场景的意义及其合理性，以及该研究的未来方向。
