Exploratory Studies to Investigate a Linked Prebiotic Origin of RNA and Coded Peptides. 2nd Communication

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
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.

This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit: