{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T22:42:23Z","timestamp":1790721743123,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,28]],"date-time":"2020-07-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1595894400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000078","name":"Division of Materials Research","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["1609495"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1609495"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000078","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000001","name":"National Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["1504217"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1504217"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000001","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100004944","name":"Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["0015662"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["0015662"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100004944","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Life"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Sugars are essential for the formation of genetic elements such as RNA and as an energy\/food source. Thus, the formose reaction, which autocatalytically generates a multitude of sugars from formaldehyde, has been viewed as a potentially important prebiotic source of biomolecules at the origins of life. When analyzing our formose solutions we find that many of the chemical species are simple carboxylic acids, including \u03b1-hydroxy acids, associated with metabolism. In this work we posit that the study of the formose reaction, under alkaline conditions and moderate hydrothermal temperatures, should not be solely focused on sugars for genetic materials, but should focus on the origins of metabolism (via metabolic molecules) as well.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/life10080125","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,28]],"date-time":"2020-07-28T10:16:49Z","timestamp":1595931409000},"page":"125","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":67,"title":["The Messy Alkaline Formose Reaction and Its Link to Metabolism"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8619-7366","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Arthur","family":"Omran","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cesar","family":"Menor-Salvan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department Biologia, Universidad de Alcala, 28801 Madrid, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Greg","family":"Springsteen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, Furman University, Greenville, SC 29613, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1280-9555","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Matthew","family":"Pasek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"242","DOI":"10.1002\/jlac.18591110219","article-title":"Ueber einige Derivate des Jodmethylens","volume":"111","author":"Butlerow","year":"1859","journal-title":"Ann. 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