Sur le rôle du phosphore au cours de l’évolution chimique prébiologique

Abstract

Phosphoryl derivatives play such a central role in the biological processes of contemporary living organisms, that derivatives of phosphorus must have been also of great importance during the course of chemical evolution. 

Electric discharge reactions in typical primitive atmospheres CH₄–NH₃–H₂O containing phosphine PH₃, as well as phosphorylation and condensation/polymerization reactions using orthophosphates (in the presence of a possible prebiotic condensing agent) or polyphosphates (linear or cyclic) are reviewed. All these reactions lead to products of biochemical significance. 

Although it is still difficult to establish with certainty under which form phosphorus derivatives were available on the primitive earth, inorganic orthophosphates and polyphosphates and eventually phosphine seem to be the most likely candidates in the context of chemical evolution.