Sulfur Chemistry of Cinder Pool, YNP: Implications for a Chemical Origin of Life

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• 作者：Lindsey Sydow^a ; Philip C. Bennett^a ; ^{pbennett@jsg.utexas.edu} ; D. Kirk Nordstrom^b
• 关键词：Methanethiol ; Yellowstone ; Cinder Pool ; Origin of life ; Alkyl thiols
• 刊名：Procedia Earth and Planetary Science
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：17
• 期：Complete
• 页码：504-507
• 全文大小：146 K
• 卷排序：17

文摘

One chemical origin of life theory posits the abiotic formation of alkyl thiols as an initial step to forming biomolecules and eventually simple chemoautotrophic cells. Alkyl thiols have not previously been identified in terrestrial hot springs as unequivocally abiogenic, but they have been synthesized in the laboratory under hydrothermal conditions in the presence of a catalyst. We found methanethiol as well as other sulfur gases in Cinder Pool, Yellowstone National Park in gas samples collected using the bubble strip method. Laboratory microcosm experiments were performed using synthetic Cinder Pool water in serum bottles containing different iron-sulfur minerals, including cinders collected from the pool itself, as catalytic surfaces for the CH3SH generating reaction. The bottles were charged with H2, and CO2, with CS2 added to some and incubated from 60 to 100°C. In bottles without introduced CS2, only the cinder material produced detectable CH3SH. While CH3SH is central to the autotroph-first theory and has been synthesized in the laboratory1, it has not previously been observed to form abiotically in natural systems. We have identified abiogenic CH3SH in a terrestrial hydrothermal feature using natural catalytic surfaces consistent with the Autotroph-First origin theory.