ON THE POSSIBLE ROLE OF MONTMORILLONITES IN PREBIOTIC PEPTIDE FORMATION

The ability of montmorillonite clay minerals for catalyzing peptide formation from amino acids in aqueous solution has been investigated using glycine and Cu2+ and Ca2+ containing montmorillonites as reaction systems. Evaporation cycle experiments showed that minor amounts of di- and tripeptide are formed from the amino acid. Further polymerization of dipeptide, however, seems to be more favoured by this reaction system than the initial step of dipeptide formation, and a possible role of clays in prebiotic peptide evolution could be seen therefore in the prolongation of peptide chains. Cu2+ ions in the clay matrix did not show any advantage over the usual Ca2+ ions embedded in natural montmorillonite.