Chen, Q.-Q.; Zhao, Z.-R.; Wang, X. A Prebiotic Ribosylation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Enabled by Metal Cations and Clay Minerals. Life2021, 11, 1381.
Chen, Q.-Q.; Zhao, Z.-R.; Wang, X. A Prebiotic Ribosylation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Enabled by Metal Cations and Clay Minerals. Life 2021, 11, 1381.
Chen, Q.-Q.; Zhao, Z.-R.; Wang, X. A Prebiotic Ribosylation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Enabled by Metal Cations and Clay Minerals. Life2021, 11, 1381.
Chen, Q.-Q.; Zhao, Z.-R.; Wang, X. A Prebiotic Ribosylation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Enabled by Metal Cations and Clay Minerals. Life 2021, 11, 1381.
Abstract
We report a prebiotically relevant solution to the N1-ribosylation of pyrimidine nucleobases, a well-known challenge in the RNA World hypothesis. It is found that the presence of metal cations and clay mineral enables the previously unachievable direct ribosylation of uracil, providing by far the highest yield. Spectroscopy and chromatography analyses confirmed the formation of ribosylated uracil. The method can also be extended to the ribosylation of 2-pyrimidinone. These findings are also compatible with the metal-doped-clay model developed by our lab for the unified route of the selection of ribose and subsequent syntheses of nucleotide and RNA.
Keywords
Origins of Life; RNA World; Uracil; Ribosylation; Metal Cation; Clay Mineral
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
