The Role of Ultrahigh Resolution Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (FT-MS) in Astrobiology-Related Research: Analysis of Meteorites and Tholins

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Abstract

It is an important but also a challenging analytical problem to understand the chemical composition and structure of prebiotic organic matter that is present in extraterrestrial materials. Its formation, evolution and content in the building blocks (“seeds”) for more complex molecules, such as proteins and DNA, are key questions in the field of exobiology. Ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry is one of the best analytical techniques that can be applied because it provides reliable information on the chemical composition and structure of individual components of complex organic mixtures. Prebiotic organic material is delivered to Earth by meteorites or generated in laboratories in simulation (model) experiments that mimic space or atmospheric conditions. Recent representative examples for ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry studies using Fourier-transform (FT) mass spectrometers such as Orbitrap and ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) mass spectrometers are shown and discussed in the present article, including: (i) the analysis of organic matter of meteorites; (ii) modeling atmospheric processes in ICR cells; and (iii) the structural analysis of laboratory made tholins that might be present in the atmosphere and surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

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Most cited references 51

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High molecular diversity of extraterrestrial organic matter in Murchison meteorite revealed 40 years after its fall.

Mourad Harir, Agnes Fekete, Zelimir Gabelica … (2010)

Numerous descriptions of organic molecules present in the Murchison meteorite have improved our understanding of the early interstellar chemistry that operated at or just before the birth of our solar system. However, all molecular analyses were so far targeted toward selected classes of compounds with a particular emphasis on biologically active components in the context of prebiotic chemistry. Here we demonstrate that a nontargeted ultrahigh-resolution molecular analysis of the solvent-accessible organic fraction of Murchison extracted under mild conditions allows one to extend its indigenous chemical diversity to tens of thousands of different molecular compositions and likely millions of diverse structures. This molecular complexity, which provides hints on heteroatoms chronological assembly, suggests that the extraterrestrial chemodiversity is high compared to terrestrial relevant biological- and biogeochemical-driven chemical space.

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The process of tholin formation in Titan's upper atmosphere.

J H Waite, D T Young, T Cravens … (2007)

Titan's lower atmosphere has long been known to harbor organic aerosols (tholins) presumed to have been formed from simple molecules, such as methane and nitrogen (CH4 and N2). Up to now, it has been assumed that tholins were formed at altitudes of several hundred kilometers by processes as yet unobserved. Using measurements from a combination of mass/charge and energy/charge spectrometers on the Cassini spacecraft, we have obtained evidence for tholin formation at high altitudes (approximately 1000 kilometers) in Titan's atmosphere. The observed chemical mix strongly implies a series of chemical reactions and physical processes that lead from simple molecules (CH4 and N2) to larger, more complex molecules (80 to 350 daltons) to negatively charged massive molecules (approximately 8000 daltons), which we identify as tholins. That the process involves massive negatively charged molecules and aerosols is completely unexpected.

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Carbonaceous meteorites contain a wide range of extraterrestrial nucleobases.

C House, J Ruzicka, David Smith … (2011)

All terrestrial organisms depend on nucleic acids (RNA and DNA), which use pyrimidine and purine nucleobases to encode genetic information. Carbon-rich meteorites may have been important sources of organic compounds required for the emergence of life on the early Earth; however, the origin and formation of nucleobases in meteorites has been debated for over 50 y. So far, the few nucleobases reported in meteorites are biologically common and lacked the structural diversity typical of other indigenous meteoritic organics. Here, we investigated the abundance and distribution of nucleobases and nucleobase analogs in formic acid extracts of 12 different meteorites by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The Murchison and Lonewolf Nunataks 94102 meteorites contained a diverse suite of nucleobases, which included three unusual and terrestrially rare nucleobase analogs: purine, 2,6-diaminopurine, and 6,8-diaminopurine. In a parallel experiment, we found an identical suite of nucleobases and nucleobase analogs generated in reactions of ammonium cyanide. Additionally, these nucleobase analogs were not detected above our parts-per-billion detection limits in any of the procedural blanks, control samples, a terrestrial soil sample, and an Antarctic ice sample. Our results demonstrate that the purines detected in meteorites are consistent with products of ammonium cyanide chemistry, which provides a plausible mechanism for their synthesis in the asteroid parent bodies, and strongly supports an extraterrestrial origin. The discovery of new nucleobase analogs in meteorites also expands the prebiotic molecular inventory available for constructing the first genetic molecules.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Laszlo Prokai: Role: Academic Editor

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int J Mol Sci

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Int J Mol Sci

Journal ID (publisher-id): ijms

Title: International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Publisher: MDPI

ISSN (Electronic): 1422-0067

Publication date (Electronic): 24 March 2016

Publication date Collection: April 2016

Volume: 17

Issue: 4

Electronic Location Identifier: 439

Affiliations

[1 ]Campus Chemical Instrument Center, Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Laboratory, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

[2 ]Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, Grenoble F-38000, France; roland.thissen@ 123456univ-grenoble-alpes.fr (R.T.); frod@ 123456univ-grenoble-alpes.fr (F.-R.O.-D.); veronique.vuitton@ 123456univ-grenoble-alpes.fr (V.V.)

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[* ]Correspondence: somogyi.16@ 123456osu.edu ; Tel.: +1-614-688-0521

Article

Publisher ID: ijms-17-00439

DOI: 10.3390/ijms17040439

PMC ID: 4848895

PubMed ID: 27023520

SO-VID: b95baa75-4fa8-4a6c-b222-b21b88c2d639

License:

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC-BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

The Role of Ultrahigh Resolution Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (FT-MS) in Astrobiology-Related Research: Analysis of Meteorites and Tholins

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Abstract

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Higher order chromatin architecture

Most cited references 51

High molecular diversity of extraterrestrial organic matter in Murchison meteorite revealed 40 years after its fall.

The process of tholin formation in Titan's upper atmosphere.

Carbonaceous meteorites contain a wide range of extraterrestrial nucleobases.

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