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Abstract

Life can be found even in extreme environments, e.g., near black smokers on the ocean floor at temperatures up to ca. 120 °C and hydrostatic pressures of 40 MPa. To maintain vital reactions under these hostile conditions, extremophiles are interacting with the surrounding geochemical system. In this context, the stabilities of the essential energy-storing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) are of fundamental importance because reactions involving adenosine phosphates constrain the conditions at which carbon-based life can exist and might be also crucial information for the search of extra-terrestrial life. Adenosine phosphates react by non-enzymatic hydrolysis, which is kinetically enhanced at high temperatures. If these abiotic hydrolysis processes are too rapid, they will most likely prevent metabolisms from relying on ATP.

Here, we report on an approach used in experimental geochemistry, i.e., in situ Raman spectroscopic analyses of a fluid phase at high temperature using a hydrothermal diamond anvil cell. This combination allowed the investigation of the hydrolysis of Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP) in aqueous solution at pH 3 and 7 and at temperatures of 80, 100 and 120 °C, extending the so far measured temperature range substantially. We observed Arrhenian behaviour over this temperature interval. The rate constants at 120 °C were 4.34 × 10−3 s−1 at pH 3 and 2.91 × 10−3 s−1 at pH 7. This corresponds to ATP half-lives of a few minutes. These high decomposition rates of ATP suggest that organisms must have developed a mechanism to counteract this fast reaction at high temperatures to maintain the vital processes.