Abstract
One of the most challenging fundamental problems in establishing prebiotically plausible routes for phosphorylation reactions using phosphate is that they are thermodynamically unfavorable in aqueous conditions. Diamidophosphate (DAP), a potentially prebiotically relevant compound, was shown to phosphorylate nucleosides in aqueous medium, albeit at a very slow rate (days/weeks). Here, we demonstrate that performing these reactions within an aerosol environment, a suitable model for the early Earth ocean-air interface, yields higher reaction rates when compared to bulk solution, thus overcoming these rate limitations. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate the effective conversion (~6.5-10%) of uridine to uridine-2',3'-cyclophosphate in less than 1 h. These results suggest that aerosol environments are a possible scenario in which prebiotic phosphorylation could have occurred despite unfavorable rates in bulk solution.