21 research outputs found
THE HYDROLYSIS OF 2,4-DICHLOROPHENOXY- ACETATE ESTERS TO 2,4-DICHLOROPHENOXYACETIC ACID IN SASKATCHEWAN SOILS
Victims’ rights: serving victims or the criminal justice system? An empirical study on victims of violent crime and their experiences with the Danish police
The effects of Woylie (Bettongia penicillata) foraging on soil water repellency and water infiltration in heavy textured soils in southwestern Australia
Doing masculinity in narratives about reporting violent crime: young male victims talk about contacting and encountering the police
UV-light-driven prebiotic synthesis of iron–sulfur clusters
Iron–sulfur clusters are ancient cofactors that play a fundamental role in metabolism and may have impacted the prebiotic chemistry that led to life. However, it is unclear whether iron–sulfur clusters could have been synthesized on prebiotic Earth. Dissolved iron on early Earth was predominantly in the reduced ferrous state, but ferrous ions alone cannot form polynuclear iron–sulfur clusters. Similarly, free sulfide may not have been readily available. Here we show that UV light drives the synthesis of [2Fe–2S] and [4Fe–4S] clusters through the photooxidation of ferrous ions and the photolysis of organic thiols. Iron–sulfur clusters coordinate to and are stabilized by a wide range of cysteine-containing peptides and the assembly of iron–sulfur cluster-peptide complexes can take place within model protocells in a process that parallels extant pathways. Our experiments suggest that iron–sulfur clusters may have formed easily on early Earth, facilitating the emergence of an iron–sulfur-cluster-dependent metabolism