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Origin of Informational Polymers: The Concurrent Roles of Formamide and Phosphates
Author(s) -
Saladino Raffaele,
Crestini Claudia,
Neri Veronica,
Ciciriello Fabiana,
Costanzo Giovanna,
Di Mauro Ernesto
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
chembiochem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.05
H-Index - 126
eISSN - 1439-7633
pISSN - 1439-4227
DOI - 10.1002/cbic.200600139
Subject(s) - formamide , chemistry , abiogenesis , uracil , monomer , polymer , combinatorial chemistry , pyrophosphate , nucleotide , organic chemistry , biochemistry , dna , genetics , gene , biology , enzyme
Formamide chemistry provides a unitary system by gathering all of the precursors needed to synthesise pregenetic informational polymers in a single milieu. This is not observed with HCN chemistry. With common catalysts, formamide affords all of the precursor nucleobases , photochemically condenses into acyclonucleosides, favours transphosphorylation and enhances micellar aggregation of surfactants. Also, formamide provides a set of physicochemical conditions that thermodynamically favour the polymeric state of nucleotides over the monomers. In the origin‐of‐informational‐polymers scenario, formamide acts in every step, the least characterised being the set of its reactions with phosphates. On this matter, we report two complementary sets of results: 1) the synthesis of prebiotic precursors from formamide, which are catalysed by soluble and mineral phosphates—we observed the formation of rich mixtures that include uracil, 9H‐purine, cytosine, dihydrouracil, hypoxanthine, adenosine, urea, parabanic acid, the amino acid N ‐formylglycine and the peptide‐condensing agent carbodiimide; and 2) the protection of ribo‐ and deoxyribophosphoester bonds by phosphates. The relevance of these effects with respect to the origin of informational polymers is discussed.