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. 1969 Nov;64(3):1011–1015. doi: 10.1073/pnas.64.3.1011

PEPTIDE FORMATION MEDIATED BY HYDROGEN CYANIDE TETRAMER: A POSSIBLE PREBIOTIC PROCESS

Sherwood Chang 1, Jose Flores 1, Cyril Ponnamperuma 1
PMCID: PMC223336  PMID: 5264133

Abstract

Chemical evolution on the primitive earth must have involved condensation of α-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 α-amino acids would have been a plausible process.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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