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arXiv · 2309.17195

Fossil and present-day stromatolite ooids contain a meteoritic polymer of glycine and iron

Julie E M McGeoch·Anton J Frommelt·Robin L Owen·Gianfelice Cinque·Arthur McClelland·David Lageson·Malcolm W McGeoch
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Abstract

Hemoglycin, a space polymer of glycine and iron, has been identified in the carbonaceous chondritic meteorites Allende, Acfer 086, Kaba, Sutters Mill and Orgueil. Its core form has a mass of 1494Da and is basically an antiparallel pair of polyglycine strands linked at each end by an iron atom. The polymer forms two- and three- dimensional lattices with an inter-vertex distance of 4.9nm. Here the extraction technique for meteorites is applied to a 2.1Gya fossil stromatolite to reveal the presence of hemoglycin by mass spectrometry. Intact ooids from a recent (3,000Ya) stromatolite exhibited the same visible hemoglycin fluorescence in response to x-rays as an intact crystal from the Orgueil meteorite. X-ray analysis confirmed the existence in ooids of an internal 3-dimensional lattice of 4.9nm inter-vertex spacing, matching the spacing of lattices in meteoritic crystals. FTIR measurements of acid-treated ooid and a Sutters Mill meteoritic crystal both show the presence, via the splitting of the Amide I band, of an extended anti-parallel beta sheet structure. It seems probable that the copious in-fall of carbonaceous meteoritic material, from Archaean times onward, has left traces of hemoglycin in sedimentary carbonates and potentially has influenced ooid formation.

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BibTeXRIS

Julie E M McGeoch, Anton J Frommelt, Robin L Owen, Gianfelice Cinque, Arthur McClelland, David Lageson, Malcolm W McGeoch. 2023-09-29. Fossil and present-day stromatolite ooids contain a meteoritic polymer of glycine and iron. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1473550424000168

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