Has Enigma of One of Life's Vital Chemical Compounds Been Unraveled?

A group of researchers has suggested that their discovery offers insights into how life on Earth may have originated.

Chemists from the University College London have produced pantethine, a chemical compound integral to the origins of life on Earth, in a laboratory, according to findings published in the scientific journal Science.

Pantethine, derived from pantetheine, is the active form of vitamin B5, also known as pantothenic acid. It plays a vital role as the primary component of coenzyme A, facilitating the movement of fats within cells and aiding cellular energy production.

Initial attempts to produce pantethine began in 1995, but researchers only got scarce quantities of the compound through methods impossible on prehistoric Earth. Hence, researchers concluded that pantethine had no part in the origin of life.

However, this new study by British scientists has synthesized significant amounts of pantethine. They accomplished this by using water maintained at room temperature containing hydrogen cyanide, a compound that could be found in abundance on Earth in ancient times.

The researchers believe that the discovery of pantethine offers insights into how life may have originated on our planet. They suggested that lakes and other large bodies of water could have been the cradle of life, rather than oceans, with their high chemical concentrations.

Prior scientific investigations also indicated the possibility of prehistoric life on Mars.