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Exploratory Studies to Investigate a Linked Prebiotic Origin of RNA and Coded Peptides. 2nd Communication
Author(s) -
Smith James M.,
Borsenberger Vinciane,
Raftery Jim,
Sutherland John D.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
chemistry and biodiversity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.427
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1612-1880
pISSN - 1612-1872
DOI - 10.1002/cbdv.200490105
Subject(s) - prebiotic , chemistry , abiogenesis , rna , computational biology , biochemistry , astrobiology , biology , gene
The potentially prebiotic synthesis of ribo ‐nucleotides by stepwise pyrimidine nucleobase assembly on arabinose ‐3‐phosphate derivatives has been demonstrated in previous work [1]. Consideration of the provenance of pentose phosphates, by aldolisation or sugar phosphorylation, suggested that 2‐phosphate derivatives might be generated more easily than 3‐phosphate derivatives. In the 2‐phosphate series, nucleobase‐assembly chemistry to give ribo ‐nucleotides/nucleic acid can be envisaged from xylo ‐configured starting materials. In this paper, the derivation of xylose‐2‐phosphate derivatives by aldol chemistry and attempts to demonstrate subsequent pyrimidine nucleobase assembly are reported.