It had a composite structure of a mineral base with catalytic transition metal centers (predominantly iron and nickel, but also perhaps cobalt, manganese, tungsten and zinc).
[16] Reaction of nickel hydroxide with hydrogen cyanide (HCN) (in the presence or absence of ferrous hydroxide, hydrogen sulfide or methyl mercaptan) generates nickel cyanide, which reacts with carbon monoxide (CO) to generate pairs of α-hydroxy and α-amino acids: e.g. glycolate/glycine, lactate/alanine, glycerate/serine; as well as pyruvic acid in significant quantities.
Farid et al.[citation needed] have experimentally shown that mackinawite (FeS) has ability to reduce CO2 to CO at temperature higher than 300 °C.
According to Woese, this frequent exchange of genetic material is the cause for the existence of the common stem in the tree of life and for a very rapid early evolution.
Recent work suggests that nucleobases might also be formed following the universally conserved biosynthetic pathways, using metal ions as catalysts".
[24] Metabolic intermediates in glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway such as glucose, pyruvate, ribose 5-phosphate, and erythrose-4-phosphate are spontaneously generated in the presence of Fe(II).
Thioacetate in more cooler and neutral conditions promotes synthesis of acetyl phosphate which is a precursor to adenosine triphosphate and is capable of phosphorylating ribose and nucleosides.
This suggests that acetyl phosphate was likely synthesized in thermophoresis and mixing between the acidic seawater and alkaline hydrothermal fluid in interconnected micropores.
[28] Thermophoresis at hydrothermal vent pores can concentrate polyribonucleotides,[29] but it remains unknown as to how it could promote coding and metabolic reactions.
[31] In 2017, a computational simulation of a protocell at an alkaline hydrothermal vent environment showed that "Some hydrophobic amino acids chelate FeS nanocrystals, producing three positive feedbacks: (i) an increase in catalytic surface area; (ii) partitioning of FeS nanocrystals to the membrane; and (iii) a proton-motive active site for carbon fixing that mimics the enzyme Ech".
[33] Experimental research of biomimetic prebiotic reactions such as the reduction of NAD+[34] and phosphoryl transfer[35] also support an origin of life occurring at an alkaline hydrothermal vent .
William Martin and Michael Russell suggest that the first cellular life forms may have evolved inside alkaline hydrothermal vents at seafloor spreading zones in the deep sea.
The last evolutionary step en route to bona fide free-living cells would be the synthesis of a lipid membrane that finally allows the organisms to leave the microcavern system of the vent.
In this way many of the individual reactions that are today found in central metabolism could initially have occurred independent of any developing cell membrane.
Russell adds a significant factor to these ideas, by pointing out that semi-permeable mackinawite (an iron sulfide mineral) and silicate membranes could naturally develop under these conditions and electrochemically link reactions separated in space, if not in time[clarification needed].
[42] These prebiotic processes might have occurred in shaded areas that protect the emergence of early cellular life under ultraviolet irradiation.
[45] Geothermal convection could also be a source of energy for the emergence of the proton motive force, phosphoryl group transfer, coupling between oxidation-reduction, and active transport.
[4] It's noted by David Deamer and Bruce Damer that these environments seemingly resemble Charles Darwin's idea of a "warm little pond".
[42] The problems with the hypothesis of a subaerial hydrothermal field of abiogenesis is that the proposed chemistry doesn't resemble known biochemical reactions.