Evidence of selection in mineral mediated polymerization reactions executed in a robotic Chemputer system

Asche, S., Pow, R. W., Mehr, H. M. , Cooper, G. J. T. , Sharma, A. and Cronin, L. (2024) Evidence of selection in mineral mediated polymerization reactions executed in a robotic Chemputer system. ChemSystemsChem, e202400006. (doi: 10.1002/syst.202400006) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

It has long been thought that abiogenesis requires a process of selection and evolution at the molecular level, but this process is hard to explore experimentally. One solution could be the use of automation in experiments which could allow for traceability and the ability to explore a larger reaction space. We report a fully programmable and automated platform to explore the reactions of amino acids in the presence of mineral environments. The robotic system is based upon the Chemputer system which has well defined modules, software, and a chemical programming language to orchestrate the chemical processes, including analysis. The reaction mixtures were analysed with tandem mass spectrometry and a peptide sequencing algorithm. Each experiment was screened for 1,398,100 possible unique sequences, and more than 550 specifically defined sequences were confirmed experimentally. This work aimed to develop a new understanding of selection in repeated cycles of polymerisation reactions to explore the emergence of well-defined amino acid sequences. We found that the outcome of oligomerisation was significantly influenced by the presence of different minerals, and that a serpentine environment selects glycine and phenylalanine rich fragments that enable the formation of longer oligomers with well-defined sequences as a function of cycle number.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from EPSRC (Grants EP/S019472/1, EP/W001918/1, EP/R01308X/1, EP/S030603/1, EP/S017046/1), ERC (Grant 670467 SMART-POM), NIH (Grant 1UG3TR004136-01) and the John Templeton Foundation (Grant 62231, 61184, 60625).
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Cooper, Dr Geoff and Pow, Mr Robert William and Sharma, Mr Abhishek and Mehr, Dr Hessam and Asche, Miss Silke and Cronin, Professor Lee
• Authors: Asche, S., Pow, R. W., Mehr, H. M., Cooper, G. J. T., Sharma, A., and Cronin, L.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Chemistry
• Journal Name: ChemSystemsChem
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 2570-4206
• ISSN (Online): 2570-4206
• Published Online: 07 March 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 The Authors
• First Published: First published in ChemSystemsChem 2024
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
303747		Digital-Chemical-Robotics for Translation of Code to Molecules and Complex Chemical Systems	Leroy Cronin	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/S019472/1	Chemistry
314175		Establishing Electrically Programmable Reaction Arrays as Universal Chemical Computers	Leroy Cronin	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/W001918/1	Chemistry
300591		Programmable Molecular Metal Oxides (PMMOs) - From Fundamentals to Application	Leroy Cronin	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/R01308X/1	Chemistry
304037		EPSRC International Centre-to-Centre Cronin	Leroy Cronin	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/S030603/1	Chemistry
302667		3DSynth: Design and fabrication of cartridges for digital chemical synthesis	Leroy Cronin	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/S017046/1	Chemistry
172151		SMARTPOM: Artificial-Intelligence Driven Discovery and Synthesis of Polyoxometalate Clusters	Leroy Cronin	European Research Council (ERC)	670467	Chemistry
173546		A molecular complexity approach to identifying bio-signatures, shadow-life, and new life forms	Leroy Cronin	John Templeton Foundation (TEMPLFOU)	60625	Chemistry