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Acid‐Catalyzed RNA‐Oligomerization from 3’,5’‐cGMP
Author(s) -
Wunnava Sreekar,
Dirscherl Christina F.,
Výravský Jakub,
Kovařík Aleš,
Matyášek Roman,
Šponer Jiří,
Braun Dieter,
Šponer Judit E.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.202103672
Subject(s) - guanosine , polymerization , context (archaeology) , catalysis , nucleotide , oligonucleotide , chemistry , rna , polymer , biochemistry , biophysics , polymer chemistry , combinatorial chemistry , organic chemistry , biology , gene , paleontology
The assembly of ancient informational polymers from nucleotide precursors is the central challenge of life's origin on our planet. Among the possible solutions, dry polymerization of 3’,5’‐cyclic guanosine monophosphate (3’,5’‐cGMP) has been proposed as a candidate to create oligonucleotides of 15–20 units in length. However, the reported sensitivity of the reaction to the presence of cations raised questions of whether this chemistry could be relevant in a geological context. The experiments in this study show that the presence of cations is not restrictive as long as the reaction is conducted in an acidic environment, in contrast to previous reports that suggested optimal conditions at pH 9.