Chang S, Flores J, Ponnamperuma C
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1969 Nov;64(3):1011-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.64.3.1011.
Chemical evolution on the primitive earth must have involved condensation of alpha-amino acids to peptides. Under aqueous conditions consistent with current conceptions of primordial waters, heating glycerine with the hydrogen cyanide tetramer, diaminomaleonitrile, yields dipeptide. If nitrogen was cycled through primordial waters as cyanide, peptide synthesis by stepwise tetramer-mediated condensation of alpha-amino acids would have been a plausible process.
原始地球上的化学进化必定涉及α-氨基酸缩合形成肽。在与当前对原始海洋的概念相符的水相条件下,将甘油与氰化氢四聚体二氨基马来腈一起加热,会产生二肽。如果氮以氰化物的形式在原始海洋中循环,那么通过α-氨基酸的逐步四聚体介导缩合来合成肽可能是一个合理的过程。