Linked cycles of oxidative decarboxylation of glyoxylate as protometabolic analogs of the citric acid cycle

Abstract

The citric acid cycle (TCA) is a fundamental metabolic pathway to release stored energy in living organisms. Here, the authors report two linked cycles of reactions that each oxidize glyoxylate into CO2 and generate intermediates shared with the modern TCA cycle, shedding light into a plausible TCA protometabolism.