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Hemoglycin (previously termed hemolithin) is a space polymer that is the first polymer of found in .
Besides being present in carbonaceous meteorites, hemoglycin has also been extracted and crystallized from a fossil stromatolite that formed on Earth 2.1 billion years ago. Potentially, this fossil hemoglycin was delivered to Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB), as the hemoglycin in the fossil has extraterrestrial isotopes similar to that in meteorites. The polymer on the Precambrian could have driven the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) beginning 2.4 Gya by splitting water in response to ultraviolet irradiation. Also, it could have provided an energy source to early biochemistry and/or it could have simply delivered a source of Glycine.
A comment from the Harvard research leader on Hemoglycin JEMMc - Hemoglycin, a space polymer of glycine and iron has been extensively characterized 1-11 and now needs to be considered in the context of 4 areas of astronomy and planetary science: 1st in astronomy, the period between Pop III and Pop II stars, when the constituent elements of hemoglycin first formed even as early as 500My into cosmic time 1. 2nd in molecular clouds and protoplanetary disks where the polymer is likely to form and function in accretion 6,9,10. Thus, the polymer could be a major player in solar system formation throughout the Universe. 3rd after in-fall to planets like Earth, where on Earth it could have kick-started "The Great Oxygenation Event" (GOE) 9. 4th on exo-planets that evolve biochemistry like Earth, it could be asked whether the formation of DNA involves hemoglycin as a template. Guanine and cytosine nucleotide bases could form and bind to the 5 nm glycine rods of in-fall hemoglycin to start the coding of glycine 12.
Hemoglycin is not a biological molecule, being outside of biochemistry, that is, abiotic. It may have first formed 500 million years into cosmic time as a structure that could absorb photons from 0.2-15 μm 7,8,9,10, be available throughout the Universe, and provide energy to drive adjacent space chemistry. On its in-fall to exo-planets like Earth it could absorb solar ultraviolet and donate energy to early chemical systems. Hemoglycin could therefore be thought of as an abiotic absorber of light, a supplier of energy and an accretor of matter. Synthetic hemoglycin synthesis will be attempted in 2025 to aid acquisition of a refined x-ray diffraction set for its structure. Hemoglycin crystals from meteorites, and stromatolites, to date are fiber-like or multiple 6,8,9. A comparison of the MALDI mass spectrometry fragmentation patterns 5,11 of synthetic and extracted hemoglycin will be informative.
physics.chem-ph
& arXiv:2309.17195 physics.geo-ph.
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