{"id":9960,"date":"2011-02-09T05:47:35","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T10:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utnews.utoledo.edu\/?p=9960"},"modified":"2011-02-07T15:21:25","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T20:21:25","slug":"journal-article-investigates-chemistry-of-possible-new-life-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/02_09_2011\/journal-article-investigates-chemistry-of-possible-new-life-form","title":{"rendered":"Journal article investigates chemistry of possible new life form"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Dec. 2, 2010, NASA held a press conference to announce a new form of life had been discovered \u2014 bacteria with a molecular DNA structure based on the element arsenic instead of phosphorus, an element previously thought essential for life. <\/p>\n

But almost immediately, there was skepticism among the scientific community, questioning whether an element poisonous to most life could in fact be one of its building blocks.<\/p>\n

\"Viola\"<\/a>

Viola<\/p><\/div>In January\u2019s issue of the journal Biochemistry, Dr. Ronald Viola, UT Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry, and Dr. Dan Tawfik of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel explore the possibilities of the compound arsenate replacing phosphate in biomolecules and advise not dismissing too quickly the possibility of arsenic-based life.<\/p>\n

According to Viola, the supporting data for the research NASA announced are slim.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there is evidence of the compound arsenate in the study, there is also evidence of the compound phosphate. There\u2019s no direct evidence the arsenate has taken the place of the phosphate molecule in the organism\u2019s DNA structure,\u201d Viola said.<\/p>\n

But the pair argue that questions about the NASA announcement shouldn\u2019t eliminate the notion of arsenic-based life, but instead should promote new research into the element\u2019s place in biochemistry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the center of the debate is whether arsenic, which has a similar chemical structure to phosphorus, can be substituted for each other among some organisms,\u201d Viola said. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor this interchange to occur, organisms would need to develop extremely selective enzymes to detect the differences between arsenic- and phosphorus-based compounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viola and Tawfik said that the \u201cpromiscuity\u201d or willingness of organisms to accept different compounds on which to build \u201cgenerally provides the starting points for the evolution of new protein functions.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe notion of life without phosphate might be proven wrong, but life with arsenate presents extreme challenges as well as intriguing research opportunities,\u201d Viola and Tawfik wrote. <\/p>\n

The biggest challenge that must be overcome is the low stability of arsenate compounds, which is especially critical when the integrity of an organism\u2019s genetic information must be maintained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe study of the structural, functional and evolutionary aspects of arsenate-phosphate discrimination and of the mechanisms for the discrimination of similar ions may therefore yield key insights into the possibilities of alternative life chemistries,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent article co-authored by Dr. Ronald Viola, UT Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry, looks at the possibility of arsenic-based life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}