Chemical Selection Before Genetics: The Sulfur–Boron Framework for Carbohydrate Organization, Protomembranes, and Pre-RNA Systems
Monography
| Language |
Английский |
| Type |
Monography |
| ISBN |
979-8-90224-505-6 |
| Pages count |
129 |
| Circulation |
100 |
| Authors |
Dembitsky V.M.
1
|
The origin of life required not only the abiotic synthesis of organic
molecules but also physicochemical mechanisms capable of selecting,
stabilizing, organizing, and integrating those molecules into increasingly
complex chemical systems. The book proposes the Sulfur–Boron Era as a
conceptual framework in which complementary elemental chemistries
collectively guided the emergence of molecular complexity before the
establishment of phosphate-dependent biology. Within this model,
carbohydrates are viewed as universal molecular platforms whose
hydroxyl-rich architecture, stereochemical diversity, and conformational
flexibility enabled successive interactions with sulfur, boron, nitrogen,
phosphorus, and later arsenic. Reduced sulfur chemistry is proposed to have
generated extensive molecular diversity through redox processes and sulfurrich intermediates, whereas oxygenated sulfur chemistry introduced the first
stage of molecular selection by reversibly stabilizing reactive carbonyl
compounds. Boron subsequently imposed a second level of selection
through highly specific recognition of cis-vicinal diols, promoting
reversible borate ester formation, carbohydrate selection, and
supramolecular organization. We further propose that these complementary
chemistries operated within parallel pH-controlled geochemical domains,
giving rise to Sulfo-Informational Molecules (SIMs) and BoroInformational Molecules (BIMs) as dynamic pre-RNA informational
networks based on reversible molecular interactions rather than permanent
polymers.