HKG cycle and malonate cycle tagged posts

2 non-biological cycles—HKG cycle and malonate cycle—could have come together to kick-start a crude version of the citric acid cycle. Image courtesy Greg Springsteen and Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy.

TSRI chemists have developed a fascinating new theory for how life on Earth may have begun. Their experiments demonstrate that key chemical reactions that support life today could have been carried out with ingredients likely present on Earth 4 billion years ago. “This was a black box for us,” said Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, PhD, associate professor of chemistry at TSRI and senior author of the new study. “But if you focus on the chemistry, the questions of origins of life become less daunting.”

For the new study, Krishnamurthy and this team focused on the citric acid cycle...