A Clue For The Hen And Egg Question: The Simultaneous Formation Of Uracil And Amino Acids Under Simulated Hadean Conditions

The origin of life is commonly discussed within two competing conceptual frameworks: the metabolism-first and information-first hypotheses. While each emphasizes a different defining property of early life, modern biochemistry reveals a fundamental interdependence between metabolic processes and genetic information transfer, leading to a persistent chicken-and-egg problem.

In this study, we investigate a prebiotically plausible reaction system that enables the concurrent formation of molecular precursors associated with both frameworks. Under simulated Hadean hydrothermal conditions, acetylene, ammonia, cyanide, and carbon monoxide were reacted in aqueous solution in the presence of transition metal sulfides.

Using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry combined with stable isotope labeling, we demonstrate the simultaneous formation of the nucleobase uracil and the amino acids alanine and aspartic acid.

Isotopic incorporation patterns allow reconstruction of the underlying reaction pathways and confirm the contribution of all starting materials to product formation. While amino acids are produced continuously over the observed period in significantly higher yields than uracil, uracil formation exhibits a pronounced time-dependent maximum after three days. Variations in pH, reaction time, and metal sulfide catalysts modulate product yields but do not prevent the parallel emergence of both molecular classes.

These findings support a scenario in which proto-metabolic chemistry and molecular precursors of genetic information could have arisen simultaneously within a shared geochemical setting.

The results provide experimental support for a coupled origin of metabolism and transcriptional building blocks, offering a potential resolution to the dichotomy between metabolism-first and information-first models of early life.

A Clue for the Hen and Egg Question: The Simultaneous Formation of Uracil and Amino Acids Under Simulated Hadean Conditions, Life (open access)

Astrobiology, Astrochemistry,