From the one-carbon amide formamide to RNA all the steps are prebiotically possible.

Raffaele Saladino (1) , Giorgia Botta (1) , Samanta Pino (2) , Giovanna Costanzo (3) , Ernesto Di Mauro (2)

1 Dipartimento di Agrobiologia ed Agrochimica
2 Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Charles Darwin"
3 IPBM - Institute of Molecular Pathology and Biology [Rome]

Formamide provides the raw material and the reaction leads connecting hydrogen cyanide HCN chemistry with higher complexity molecular structures. Formamide is liquid between 4 and 210 °C and, upon heating in the presence of one of several catalysts, affords nucleic bases, acyclonucleosides, carboxylic acids and aminoacids. In formamide in the presence of a source of phosphate, nucleosides are non-fastidiously phosphorylated in every position of the sugar residue, also yielding cyclic nucleotides. Guanine 3',5' cyclic nucleotide monophosphates polymerize to oligonucleotides, up to 30 nucleotides long. Adenine 3',5' cyclic nucleotide monophosphate reacts similarly but less efficiently. Preformed oligonucleotides may undergo terminal ligation in the absence of enzymes, thus allowing the formation of abiotically obtained long RNA chains.

Domains: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology

Raffaele Saladino, Giorgia Botta, Samanta Pino, Giovanna Costanzo, Ernesto Di Mauro. From the one-carbon amide formamide to RNA all the steps are prebiotically possible.. Biochimie, 2012, 94 (7), pp.1451-6. ⟨10.1016/j.biochi.2012.02.018⟩. ⟨pasteur-00961535⟩