Interstellar Formation of Biorelevant Pyruvic Acid (CH3COCOOH)

Nils Fabian Kleimeier, André K. Eckhardt, Peter R. Schreiner and Ralf I. Kaiser
Chem 2020, 6-12, 3385-3395. DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2020.10.003

One of the key questions is how life could have emerged on early Earth and what chemicals and key reactions were involved. Terrestrial biomolecules, such as DNA, RNA, and peptides, formed from building blocks like nucleobases and amino acids. But where do these come from? Simple chemical building blocks could have formed on icy grains in space and may have survived comet impact on the early Earth. Pyruvic acid is widely accepted as a key prebiotic starting material, as it may have served as a fundamental building block for biorelevant molecules. This is underlined by the identification of pyruvic acid in carbonaceous meteorites. This study investigates the formation of pyruvic acid under interstellar conditions to encourage scientists in other fields to consider pyruvic acid as a potential interstellar molecule and include it in their radio-astronomical line searches. For chemists, the study will lead to a better understanding of the fundamental processes of abiotic syntheses of organic molecules.