Catalytic Prebiotic Formation of Glycerol Phosphate Esters and an Estimation of Their Steady State Abundance under Plausible Early Earth Conditions

The emergence of biological phosphate esters glycerol could have been a crucial step in the origin and evolution life on early Earth as phosphates today play central role biochemistry. We investigate here formation by employing various rock samples, salts, minerals potential catalysts to aid phosphorylation process. report synthesis including glycerol-1-phosphate, glycerol-2-phosphate, cyclic glycerol-monophosphate well diphosphate esters. Furthermore, decomposition rates under mild heating were also studied while keeping pH constant. It was observed that starts decomposing quickly conditions into inorganic orthophosphate pyrophosphate, steady state concentration ~0.5 M may reasonable ponds with abundant glycerol, phosphate, urea, catalytic minerals.