The Nature of the Spark Is a Pivotal Element in the Design of a Miller-Urey Experiment

Overview

Journal Life (Basel)

Specialty Biology

Date 2023 Nov 25

PMID 38004341

Authors

Sina Ravanbodshirazi

Timothee Boutfol

Neda Safaridehkohneh

Marc Finkler

Mina Mohammadi-Kambs

Albrecht Ott

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Miller and Urey applied electric sparks to a reducive mixture of CH, NH, and water to obtain a complex organic mixture including biomolecules. In this study, we examined the impact of temperature, initial pressure, ammonia concentration, and the spark generator on the chemical profile of a Miller-Urey-type prebiotic broth. We analyzed the broth composition using Gas Chromatography combined with Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS). The results point towards strong compositional changes with the nature of the spark. Ammonia exhibited catalytic properties even with non-nitrogen-containing compounds. A more elevated temperature led to a higher variety of substances. We conclude that to reproduce such a broth as well as possible, all the studied parameters need to be tightly controlled, the most difficult and important being spark generation.

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