Construction of an autocatalytic reaction cycle in neutral medium for synthesis of life-sustaining sugars.

Autocatalytic mechanisms in carbon metabolism, such as the Calvin cycle, are responsible for the biological assimilation of CO to form organic compounds with complex structures, including sugars. Compounds that form C-C bonds with CO are regenerated in these autocatalytic reaction cycles, and the products are concurrently released. The formose reaction in basic aqueous solution has attracted attention as a nonbiological reaction involving an autocatalytic reaction cycle that non-enzymatically synthesizes sugars from the C1 compound formaldehyde.