A Dreuw

A Giner-Sorolla

A Ishiwata

AC Rios

AD Mariani

AM Schoffstall

B Samanta

BD Heuberger

BH Patel

C Anastasi

C Hättig

DJ Pascoe

DJ Ritson

G Springsteen

GF Joyce

GM Marion

H Kim

J Xu

JD Sutherland

JS Hudson

JS Teichert

JV Gavette

K Leu

L Li

M Levy

MC Sauer

MP Robertson

MW Powner

NG Holm

P Karran

P Reichard

R Lohrmann

R Shapiro

RA Sanchez

RP Panzica

S Becker

S Bhowmik

S Ranjan

SC Kim

SG Trevino

SJ Roberts

T Lindahl

T Walton

W Gilbert

WD Fuller

English

Crossref

Selective prebiotic formation of RNA pyrimidine and DNA purine nucleosides

The nature of the first genetic polymer is the subject of major debate. Although the ‘RNA world’ theory suggests that RNA was the first replicable information carrier of the prebiotic era—that is, prior to the dawn of life—other evidence implies that life may have started with a heterogeneous nucleic acid genetic system that included both RNA and DNA. Such a theory streamlines the eventual ‘genetic takeover’ of homogeneous DNA from RNA as the principal information-storage molecule, but requires a selective abiotic synthesis of both RNA and DNA building blocks in the same local primordial geochemical scenario. Here we demonstrate a high-yielding, completely stereo-, regio- and furanosyl-selective prebiotic synthesis of the purine deoxyribonucleosides: deoxyadenosine and deoxyinosine. Our synthesis uses key intermediates in the prebiotic synthesis of the canonical pyrimidine ribonucleosides (cytidine and uridine), and we show that, once generated, the pyrimidines persist throughout the synthesis of the purine deoxyribonucleosides, leading to a mixture of deoxyadenosine, deoxyinosine, cytidine and uridine. These results support the notion that purine deoxyribonucleosides and pyrimidine ribonucleosides may have coexisted before the emergence of life

Xu, Jianfeng

Chmela, Václav

Green, Nicholas J.

Russell, David A.

Janicki, Mikołaj J.

Góra, Robert W.

Szabla, Rafał

Bond, Andrew D.

Sutherland, John D.

Edinburgh Research Explorer

https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/files/150339053/20200605_Szabla_nature_accepted_manuscript.pdf

Selective prebiotic formation of RNA pyrimidine and DNA purine nucleosides

Abstract

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