Hydrothermal vents supply a geochemical precursor of ATP that could have powered early life

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Researchers at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf report that phosphite and palladium found in hydrogen-producing hydrothermal vents may have supplied chemical energy for early metabolic reactions. They propose these substances as inorganic precursors to ATP, a key energy carrier in modern cells.

Where did the energy come from to power the chemical origin of life, and how did phosphate come to be the universal energy currency of cells? Biologists from the Institute of Molecular Evolution at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have uncovered a new source of energy that drove primordial chemical reactions on the early Earth forward to kick-start metabolism. Their findings, now published in The FEBS Journal, identify phosphite and palladium, substances that naturally occur in H2-producing hydrothermal vents, as an inorganic precursor of ATP.