Magnesium pyrophosphate is easily formed under mild abiotic hydrothermal conditions (165–180°C) from magnesium salts and orthophosphate (Seel et al. 1985, 1986; Kongshaug et al. 2000). The reason may be that the size of Mg2+ makes it possible to simultaneously coordinate negatively charged oxygen of two adjacent phosphorus atoms (Yamagata et al. 1995). This effect has also been observed in ribosomes, click here in which the Mg2+ density with direct interaction to phosphate oxygens is greatest in the core region (Hsiao et al. 2009). The MgPPi complex is stabilized by NaCl as supporting medium (Hørder 1974). Seel et al. used magnesium monohydrate phosphate dispersed in water

in their syntheses, whereas Kongshaug et al. obtained low water activity by the use of phosphoric acid. As Wnt tumor indicated by the formation and precipitation of brucite, Mg(OH)2, dissolved magnesium is abundant in hydrothermal fluids of serpentinization environments. Discussion see more The pH of the isoelectric point or point of zero charge (pHpzc) of brucite has been found to be around 11 (Pokrovsky and Schott 2004). The pH caused by serpentinization of primary silicates

(~10.7) is slightly below that value, which means that the negatively charged phosphate molecules can be adsorbed by brucite in fluids that are chemically dominated by such processes. However, if carbonate dissolution begins to dominate the fluid chemistry, pH rises above the pHpzc of brucite and adsorbed negatively charged species, like orthophosphate and pyrophosphate, Interleukin-2 receptor are desorbed and released. This effect

is amplified by the concentration of cations in the fluids and their type. Barrow and Shaw (1979) have shown that desorption of phosphates from soils is faster in NaCl solutions than in either MgCl2 or CaCl2 solutions. This is in agreement with studies by Hagan et al. (2007) that show a linear increase in soluble phosphate with increasing NaCl concentrations. In addition, a sequence of monovalent cations desorbing phosphate from fastest to slowest of Li+>Na+>NH 4 + >K+,Rb+>Cs+ has been shown (Barrow and Shaw 1979). This means that the evolution of very early organisms with pyrophosphate as energy currency (Baltscheffsky 1996) could occur at the dynamic environments that are found in subduction zones like the Mariana forearc. Since the alkaline pH of these subduction environments may allow abiotic synthesis of amino acids, carbohydrates and heterocyclic nitrogen bases, etc. (Holm and Neubeck 2009), it also opens up the possibility both of early autotrophic as well as heterotrophic microbial communities with permeable early membranes in this setting (Deamer 2008; Mansy et al. 2008; Mulkidjanian et al. 2009). Mulkidjanian et al. (2008b, 2009) have proposed that at high temperature and/or high pH, i.e. at low concentration of protons, the sodium energetics is more advantageous than under mesophilic conditions, so that obligate anaerobes routinely exploit the sodium cycle.