About a Formamide-Based Origin of Informational Polymers: Syntheses of Nucleobases and Favourable Thermodynamic Niches for Early Polymers |
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| Authors: | Raffaele Saladino Claudia Crestini Fabiana Ciciriello Giovanna Costanzo Ernesto Di Mauro |
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| Institution: | (1) Dipartimento A.B.A.C., Università della Tuscia, Via San Camillo De Lellis, Viterbo, 01100, Italy;(2) Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche, Università “Tor Vergata”, Rome, 00133, Italy;(3) Istituto di Biologia e Patologia Molecolari, CNR, P.le Aldo Moro, 5, Rome, 00185, Italy;(4) Fondazione “Istituto Pasteur-Fondazione Cenci-Bolognetti” c/o Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Università “La Sapienza” di Roma, P.le Aldo Moro, 5, Rome, 00185, Italy |
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| Abstract: | Formamide NH2CHO chemistry provides a unitary frame into which several pieces of the origin-of-life puzzle may be adjusted. Synthetic processes
were uncovered which, starting from formamide and prebiotically easily available common catalysts, yield all the necessary
nucleic bases precursors, including acyclonucleosides. Formamide allows phosphorylations and trans-phosphorylations, favours
the micellar aggregation of surfactants and, most importantly, determines conditions in which the formation of nucleic polymers
is thermodynamically favoured. In the detected conditions, the phosphoester bonds are more stable in the polymeric than in
the monomeric form, thus allowing formation and survival of informational nucleic polymers.
Presented at: National Workshop on Astrobiology: Search for Life in the Solar System, Capri, Italy, 26 to 28 October, 2005. |
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| Keywords: | formamide nucleic bases acyclonucleosides informational polymers thermodynamic niches |
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