Combined Network and High Resolution Mass Spectrometry Analysis of the Formose Reaction Reveals Mechanisms for Emergent Behaviors

The formose reaction (FR) autocatalytically converts simple plausibly prebiotic feedstocks into molecules of biological interest, including ribose. Autocatalysis is a hallmark of life, thus various studies have explored the formose reaction with respect to the origins of life. The FR is robust under appropriate conditions, occurring readily at low temperatures from various substrates, and has been implicated in the generation of meteoritic organic compounds. We explored the FR here using a combination of in silico modeling techniques and high resolution mass spectrometry. The models match experimental results well, and point to the FR being much more complex than previously modeled or measured, and help explain the FR’s potential to generate homochirality and primitive compartments, both of which are also hallmarks of life, before the emergence of the complex directed molecular encoding suggested by the RNA World model. These results suggest the FR requires further study with regard to the origins of life, and its importance may lie in the way it enables and coordinates emergent chemistries, rather than the particular products it generates, such as ribose.