Formamide provides the raw material and the reaction leads connecting hydrogen cyanide HCN chemistry with higher complexity molecular structures. Formamide is liquid between 4 and 210 degrees C and, upon heating in the presence of one of several catalysts, affords nucleic bases, acyclonucleosides, carboxylic acids and aminoacids. In formamide in the presence of a source of phosphate, nucleosides are non-fastidiously phosphorylated in every position of the sugar residue, also yielding cyclic nucleotides. Guanine 3',5' cyclic nucleotide monophosphates polymerize to oligonucleotides, up to 30 nucleotides long. Adenine 3',5' cyclic nucleotide monophosphate reacts similarly but less efficiently. Preformed oligonucleotides may undergo terminal ligation in the absence of enzymes, thus allowing the formation of abiotically obtained long RNA chains. (c) 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
From the one-carbon amide formamide to RNA all the steps are prebiotically possible
Costanzo Giovanna;
2012
Abstract
Formamide provides the raw material and the reaction leads connecting hydrogen cyanide HCN chemistry with higher complexity molecular structures. Formamide is liquid between 4 and 210 degrees C and, upon heating in the presence of one of several catalysts, affords nucleic bases, acyclonucleosides, carboxylic acids and aminoacids. In formamide in the presence of a source of phosphate, nucleosides are non-fastidiously phosphorylated in every position of the sugar residue, also yielding cyclic nucleotides. Guanine 3',5' cyclic nucleotide monophosphates polymerize to oligonucleotides, up to 30 nucleotides long. Adenine 3',5' cyclic nucleotide monophosphate reacts similarly but less efficiently. Preformed oligonucleotides may undergo terminal ligation in the absence of enzymes, thus allowing the formation of abiotically obtained long RNA chains. (c) 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
