Phosphate immobilization by oxide precursors: implications on phosphate availability before life on earth.

Abstract

The present study is based on the proposal that if the aqueous phosphorus-capture mechanism by iron oxide precursors was inhibited in prebiotic anoxic scenarios then soluble phosphates could have been more available than what is observed now. Supporting this conjecture, we examine prevailing contemporary trapping mechanisms of orthophosphate (Pi) and pyrophosphate (PPi). To illustrate its efficiency, the attachment of (Pi) onto aggregates of iron-3 oxyhydroxide is compared with the one reported for the product of its condensation, PPi. The electrophoretic profiles of the Pi- and PPi-aggregate complexes reveal different pH-modulated interactions of the phosphorylated compounds with both the aggregate and its aqueous surrounding layers. The observed differences of Pi/PPi sorption and desorption mechanisms are discussed in terms of their consequences to the prebiotic availability of soluble orthophosphate and of a phosphorylated compound having the high-energy phosphoanhydride linkage and a molecule representative of condensed oligophosphates.