{"id":10813,"date":"2026-07-23T13:30:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T04:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/?post_type=news_events&p=10813"},"modified":"2026-07-23T13:30:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T04:30:46","slug":"nonenzymatic_carbamoylation","status":"publish","type":"news_events","link":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/en\/news_events\/highlights\/2026\/nonenzymatic_carbamoylation\/","title":{"rendered":"A mild aqueous route to life’s chemical building blocks"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the longstanding challenges in origins-of-life research is explaining how biologically important phosphorylation and carbamoylation reactions could occur in water under mild conditions. Researchers at ELSI along with collaborators at JAMSTEC and RIKEN have shown that a simple combination of urea, nitrite, and copper sulfide can drive these reactions at room temperature and near-neutral pH. This study demonstrates the formation of carbamoyl phosphate, phosphorylation of a nucleoside, and carbamoylation of an amino acid under conditions that may have been common on the early Earth, offering a possible link between geological environments and prebiotic chemistry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Image 1. Schematic diagram of high-energy phosphate formation from urea and phosphate
\nCopper sulphide (CuS) was added to a near-neutral aqueous solution containing urea, phosphate and nitrite ions, and the mixture was stirred at room temperature under an oxygen-free atmosphere. A high-energy phosphate compound was detected only in the presence of CuS. This system also promoted phosphorylation reaction of nucleoside in the presence of CuS. These results suggest that building blocks of nucleic acids (RNA) can be generated in aqueous solution at room temperature. Credit: Nishiki Tomizawa, ELSI \/ Institute of Science Tokyo<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How the first biological molecules formed on the early Earth remains one of science’s most challenging questions. Many reactions that are essential for modern life require activated compounds or energetic conditions that are difficult to reconcile with the mild aqueous environments thought to have hosted the emergence of life. Among these reactions are phosphorylation and carbamoylation, processes that play central roles in the synthesis of nucleic acids, peptides, and metabolic intermediates.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A team led by Nishiki Tomizawa, a doctoral student at ELSI, together with Norio Kitadai (JAMSTEC) and Professor Ryuhei Nakamura (ELSI), investigated whether a common prebiotic molecule\u2014urea\u2014could become chemically activated under gentle environmental conditions. Their study focused on interactions between urea, nitrite, and the copper sulfide mineral covellite. Previous work has shown that urea can participate in a variety of prebiotic reactions, but typically only after heating or exposure to energetic conditions. Such requirements create a dilemma because some biologically important molecules, having a high-energy phosphate bond, are unstable at elevated temperatures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The researchers discovered that copper sulfide promotes the nitrosylation of urea, increasing its reactivity in water at 25\u00b0C and near-neutral pH. Under these conditions, the reaction system generated carbamoyl phosphate, a high-energy phosphorus compound that occupies a central role in modern metabolism and is considered an important intermediate in prebiotic chemistry. The team further demonstrated that the same reaction environment could phosphorylate uridine, producing uridine monophosphate (UMP), a building block of RNA. They also showed the carbamoylation of the amino acid aspartate, yielding N-carbamoyl aspartate, a key intermediate in pyrimidine biosynthesis. These reactions occurred without enzymes and under remarkably mild aqueous conditions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The significance of the work extends beyond the individual reactions demonstrated in the laboratory. Many origin-of-life scenarios face a tension between two influential ideas: “genetics-first” models, which emphasise the emergence of RNA-like molecules, and “metabolism-first” models, which focus on self-sustaining chemical reaction networks. The conditions that favour one are often thought to be unfavourable for the other. By showing that geologically plausible materials such as copper sulfide and nitrite can activate urea and promote multiple biologically relevant reactions in mild water-rich environments, the study suggests a possible bridge between these competing frameworks. Rather than requiring separate environments for metabolic and genetic chemistry, the early Earth may have hosted conditions that supported both simultaneously.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The researchers note that the reaction yields remain modest and that much chemical space remains to be explored. Future work will investigate how dissolved metals, mineral surfaces, and varying environmental conditions influence these reactions. Nevertheless, the results reveal a previously unrecognised pathway by which simple geological materials could have helped transform stable molecules such as urea into chemically active compounds capable of driving the chemistry that preceded life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Journal<\/td>\nChemical Communications<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Title of the paper<\/td>\nNonenzymatic Carbamoylation and Phosphorylation via Urea Nitrosylation under Mild Aqueous Conditions<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Authors<\/td>\nNishiki Tomizawa*a, b<\/sup>, Norio Kitadaic<\/sup>, Shotaro Tagawac<\/sup> and Ryuhei Nakamuraa, b<\/sup><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Affiliations<\/td>\na. Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Institute of Science Tokyo, 2-12-IE-1 Ookayama,
\nMeguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8550, Japan
\nb. Biofunctional Catalyst Research Team, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource
\nScience (CSRS), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan
\nc. Institute for Extra-cutting-edge Science and Technology Avant-garde Research
\n(X-star), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC),
\n2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 237-0061, Japan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DOI<\/td>\nhttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1039\/D5CC05999B<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Online published date<\/td>\n23 March 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10814,"template":"","news_events_cat":[9],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_events\/10813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news_events"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_events_cat?post=10813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}