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The Abiotic Chemistry of Thiolated Acetate Derivatives and the Origin of Life

Overview of attention for article published in Scientific Reports, July 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (98th percentile)

Mentioned by

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34 news outlets
blogs
2 blogs
twitter
25 X users
wikipedia
11 Wikipedia pages
googleplus
1 Google+ user
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

dimensions_citation
49 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
75 Mendeley
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Title
The Abiotic Chemistry of Thiolated Acetate Derivatives and the Origin of Life
Published in
Scientific Reports, July 2016
DOI 10.1038/srep29883
Pubmed ID
Authors

Kuhan Chandru, Alexis Gilbert, Christopher Butch, Masashi Aono, H. James Cleaves

Abstract

Thioesters and thioacetic acid (TAA) have been invoked as key reagents for the origin of life as activated forms of acetate analogous to acetyl-CoA. These species could have served as high-energy group-transfer reagents and allowed carbon insertions to form higher molecular weight compounds such as pyruvate. The apparent antiquity of the Wood-Ljungdahl CO2 fixation pathway and its presence in organisms which inhabit hydrothermal (HT) environments has also led to suggestions that there may be a connection between the abiotic chemistry of compounds similar to TAA and the origins of metabolism. These compounds' apparent chemical simplicity has made their prebiotic availability assumed, however, although the kinetic behavior and thermochemical properties of TAA and analogous esters have been preliminarily explored in other contexts, the geochemical relevance of these compounds merits further evaluation. Therefore, the chemical behavior of the simplest thiolated acetic acid derivatives, TAA and methylthioacetate (MTA) were explored here. Using laboratory measurements, literature data, and thermochemical models, we examine the plausibility of the accumulation of these compounds in various geological settings. Due to the high free energy change of their hydrolysis and corresponding low equilibrium constants, it is unlikely that these species could have accumulated abiotically to any significant extant.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 25 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 75 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Canada 1 1%
Unknown 74 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 17 23%
Researcher 15 20%
Student > Bachelor 5 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 5 7%
Student > Master 5 7%
Other 8 11%
Unknown 20 27%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Chemistry 23 31%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 9 12%
Physics and Astronomy 5 7%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 5 7%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 5 7%
Other 6 8%
Unknown 22 29%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 305. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 December 2023.
All research outputs
#103,624
of 24,010,679 outputs
Outputs from Scientific Reports
#1,283
of 130,315 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,307
of 370,404 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Scientific Reports
#40
of 3,663 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,010,679 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 130,315 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.6. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 370,404 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 3,663 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.