Chemical composition of the primary aqueous phase of the earth and origin of life

Abstract

Prokaryotes and cytoplasm of eukaryotes are dominated by K+, whereas the extracellular fluid of most species of multicellular organisms is dominated by Na+. It was substantiated that the K+/Na+ ratio in the salt constituent of the cells of modern organisms qualitatively reflects the proportions between these elements in the aqueous phase, in which the first forms of life and the protocell originated. The same conclusion is done by Armen Y. Mulkidjanian et al. (PNAS 13, 2012, E821-830). The chemical composition of primary aqueous phase of the Earth was reconstructed using thermodynamic numerical simulation of the equilibrium composition of the “carbonaceous chondrite material-water”, “primitive mantle material-water”, “ultramafic rock-water”, “mafic rocks-water” systems that are open with respect to CO2 and CH4.