Availability of drinking water in rural and remote communities in New South Wales, Australia.

Many rural communities in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, have poor-quality water supplies. The lack of a palatable alternative increases the risk of the high consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, a significant contributor to adverse health outcomes. This disproportionately effects Aboriginal people living in these towns, who are also profoundly affected by the social determinants of health.

Correction: Fatty acids' double role in the prebiotic formation of a hydrophobic dipeptide.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/C5SC04796J.].

The Activation of Free Dipeptides Promoted by Strong Activating Agents in Water Does not Yield Diketopiperazines.

The activation of dipeptides was studied in the perspective of the abiotic formation of oligopeptides of significant length as a requirement for secondary structure formation. The formation of piperazin-2,5-diones (DKP), previously considered as a dead end when activating free dipeptides, was shown in this work to be efficiently suppressed when using strong activating agents (e.g.

Evolutionary importance of the intramolecular pathways of hydrolysis of phosphate ester mixed anhydrides with amino acids and peptides.

Aminoacyl adenylates (aa-AMPs) constitute essential intermediates of protein biosynthesis. Their polymerization in aqueous solution has often been claimed as a potential route to abiotic peptides in spite of a highly efficient CO2-promoted pathway of hydrolysis. Here we investigate the efficiency and relevance of this frequently overlooked pathway from model amino acid phosphate mixed anhydrides including aa-AMPs.

Diastereoselectivity in prebiotically relevant 5(4H)-oxazolone-mediated peptide couplings.

A stereochemical study of a potentially prebiotic peptide-forming reaction was carried out as the first part of a systems chemistry investigation of potential paths for symmetry breaking. Substantial diastereomeric excesses result from a fast epimerization of the 5(4H)-oxazolone intermediate in aqueous solution.