Building the uracil skeleton in primitive ponds at the origins of life: carbamoylation of aspartic acid.
Sci Rep
; 12(1): 19178, 2022 11 10.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36357418
ABSTRACT
A large set of nucleobases and amino acids is found in meteorites, implying that several chemical reservoirs are present in the solar system. The "geochemical continuity" hypothesis explores how protometabolic paths developed from so-called "bricks" in an enzyme-free prebiotic world and how they affected the origins of life. In the living cell, the second step of synthesizing uridine and cytidine RNA monomers is a carbamoyl transfer from a carbamoyl donor to aspartic acid. Here we compare two enzyme-free scenarios aqueous and mineral surface scenarios in a thermal range up to 250 °C. Both processes could have happened in ponds under open atmosphere on the primeval Earth. Carbamoylation of aspartic acid with cyanate in aqueous solutions at 25 °C gives high N-carbamoyl aspartic acid yields within 16 h. It is important to stress that, while various molecules could be efficient carbamoylating agents according to thermodynamics, kinetics plays a determining role in selecting prebiotically possible pathways.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Uracil
/
Aspartic Acid
Language:
En
Journal:
Sci Rep
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
France