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A 2026 laboratory study found that phosphite, a reduced form of phosphorus, can be converted into phosphate and hydrogen in water with solid palladium as a catalyst—and that palladium-based catalysts can help transfer phosphorus onto biologically relevant molecules. The findings suggest a possible geochemical route to phosphorylation, a process cells use in making and using ATP. They do not show that this chemistry occurred in ancient vents or powered the first life.
What did the 2026 study find?
In “Hydrothermal origin of metabolic phosphorylation,” published in The FEBS Journal on 29 September 2026, researchers tested phosphite (HPO₃²⁻) with native palladium (Pd⁰), a solid metal catalyst. They report that palladium catalyzed the oxidation of phosphite to phosphate and hydrogen in water at temperatures from 25 to 100 °C. Palladium awaruite—an alloy of palladium, nickel and iron—also catalyzed phosphite-dependent phosphorylation.
Phosphorylation adds a phosphate group to a molecule. The authors report phosphorylating glycerol, ribose, glucose, serine and cytidine, as well as producing pyrophosphate, polyphosphates, ADP, phosphocreatine and acetyl phosphate. They describe the reactions as “facile” under the experimental conditions; that is the authors’ characterization of their laboratory reactions, not evidence that the same chemistry proceeds readily in a natural vent.
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The reported yields vary by substrate and reaction conditions. They describe separate experiments, not a single overall efficiency measure.
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| Reported product or conversion | Reported condition |
|---|---|
| ADP from AMP: 5.9% conversion | 18 hours at 50 °C |
| Cytidine 5′-monophosphate: about 0.37% yield | 30 °C for 72 hours |
| Ribose phosphate: 0.6% yield | Condition not stated here; see the study |
| Glucose phosphate: 1.1% yield | Condition not stated here; see the study |
| Serine phosphorylation: approximately 49.5% yield | With Pd/C, 18 hours at 50 °C |
| Acetyl phosphate: 8% yield | Overnight at 25 °C |
These figures are not directly comparable as measures of one process: they concern different starting molecules and conditions. The researchers also propose an unidentified reactive intermediate, possibly metaphosphate, to explain how phosphorylation occurs. Its identity has not been established.
Could this chemistry have happened in natural hydrothermal vents?
That is a central open question. The study explicitly states that phosphite itself has not yet been reported in hydrothermal vent effluent. The authors were motivated in part by earlier findings of phosphite in serpentinized rocks and phosphite-oxidizing genes in microbes from serpentinizing systems. They cite reports that some serpentinized rock samples contain 20%–50% of their total phosphorus as phosphite; that figure comes from earlier work, not from the new experiments.
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The experiments show that the tested phosphorus compounds and metal catalysts can drive phosphorylation in water under laboratory conditions relevant to hydrothermal chemistry. They do not establish that phosphite and the catalysts occur together at useful concentrations in ancient vents, how quickly these reactions would proceed there, or whether the products could feed a continuing network of reactions that evolved into metabolism.
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Does the study show that early life got its energy from ATP?
No. It offers a possible geochemical precursor to phosphorylation, not a demonstration that this route made ATP for the first organisms or powered life’s origin. The authors report products including ADP and acetyl phosphate, but those results do not by themselves show that a sustained pathway produced and used ATP in an early biological system.
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Study author and senior author William F. Martin described the interpretation in a university-attributed release: “Looking at the matter openly, phosphite plus tiny, catalytic amounts of palladium represent a naturally formed geochemical precursor of ATP.” The release says this source “could have provided the momentum needed to set the chemical reactions of life in motion.” These are the researchers’ interpretation and proposed implication, not a direct observation of prebiotic chemistry in a vent.
How does this differ from hydrothermal-vent pH-gradient theories?
This study tests redox chemistry involving phosphite and native metals: phosphite is oxidized, producing phosphate and hydrogen, while phosphorylation products form in related reactions. It is distinct from the proposal that natural pH gradients across inorganic membranes powered early prebiotic chemistry.
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A 2016 critical review argued that there was no evidence for thin inorganic membranes maintaining sharp gradients at Lost City and questioned the plausibility of proposed prebiotic molecular machines. That review addresses the pH-gradient hypothesis; it does not directly test the phosphite-and-palladium experiments.
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- It supports: a laboratory demonstration that phosphite and solid palladium-based catalysts can participate in phosphorylation chemistry in water.
- It suggests: a potential geochemical route to products relevant to cellular energy chemistry.
- It does not establish: that phosphite occurs in vent effluent, that the reactions happened in early-Earth vents, or that they supplied ATP to the first life.
The study therefore makes hydrothermal chemistry a plausible experimental lead in questions about phosphorylation and life’s origins, rather than a settled explanation of how ATP—or life—began.
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Sources
- Schlikker et al., “Hydrothermal origin of metabolic phosphorylation,” The FEBS Journal, first published 29 September 2026.
- Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf release republished by Phys.org, 6 October 2026.
- “Natural pH Gradients in Hydrothermal Alkali Vents Were Unlikely to Have Played a Role in the Origin of Life,” Journal of Molecular Evolution, 2016.
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