Cyanamide mediated syntheses under plausible primitive earth conditions

Summary When an aqueous solution (pH 7.0) of deoxythymidine 5-phosphate, 4-amino-5-imidazolecarboxamide and cyanamide was dried and heated for 18 h at 60°C, P¹, P²-dideoxythymidine 5-pyrophosphate (I) was formed in a 58% yield. Oligonucleotides were not detected in the reaction product. Under conditions employed in the above reaction, (I) was shown to be stable. In prebiotic polymerization reactions employing deoxythymidine 5-triphosphate as the polymerizing species, (I) could therefore function as a primer and minimize the formation of cyclic nucleotides.Abbreviations dT deoxythymidine - dTMP deoxythymidine 5-phosphate - dTppT P¹, P²-dideoxythymidine 5-pyrophosphate - dTTP deoxythymidine 5-triphosphate - AICA 4-amino-5-imidazolecarboxamide