Unified prebiotically plausible synthesis of pyrimidine and purine RNA ribonucleotides

We report the synthesis of the pyrimidine nucleosides from small molecules and ribose, driven solely by wet-dry cycles. In the presence of phosphate-containing minerals, 5'-mono- and diphosphates also form selectively in one-pot reactions. The pathway is compatible with purine synthesis, allowing the concurrent formation of all Watson-Crick bases.

Source: ScienceNOW - October 2, 2019 Category: Science Authors: Becker, S., Feldmann, J., Wiedemann, S., Okamura, H., Schneider, C., Iwan, K., Crisp, A., Rossa, M., Amatov, T., Carell, T. Tags: Chemistry, Geochemistry, Geophysics r-articles Source Type: news