Adsorption of Adenine and Thymine on Zeolites: FT-IR and EPR Spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffractometry and SEM Studies

Abstract

The interactions of adenine and thymine with and adsorption on zeolites were studied using different techniques. There were two main findings. First, as shown by X-ray diffractometry, thymine increased the decomposition of the zeolites (Y, ZSM-5) while adenine prevented it. Second, zeolite Y adsorbed almost the same amount of adenine and thymine, thus both nucleic acid bases could be protected from hydrolysis and UV radiation and could be available for molecular evolution. The X-ray diffractometry and SEM showed that artificial seawater almost dissolved zeolite A. The adsorption of adenine on ZSM-5 zeolite was higher than that of thymine (Student-Newman-Keuls test-SNK p<0.05). Adenine was also more greatly adsorbed on ZSM-5 zeolite, when compared to other zeolites (SNK p<0.05). However the adsorption of thymine on different zeolites was not statistically different (SNK p>0.05). The adsorption of adenine and thymine on zeolites did not depend on pore size or Si/Al ratio and it was not explained only by electrostatic forces; rather van der Waals interactions should also be considered.

Adsorption of nucleotides onto ferromagnesian phyllosilicates: Significance for the origin of life

“…Previous experimental studies have focused on a variety of mineral surfaces such as alumina, calcite, goethite, mica, olivine, pyrite, rutile, silica, or zinc oxide (Lorenz and Wackernagel, 1987;Holm et al, 1993;Bezanilla et al, 1995;Cohn et al, 2001;Balint et al, 2007;Arora, 2007;Cleaves et al, 2010;Cleaves et al, 2011;Baú et al, 2012;Livi et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2014;Saha and Sarkar, 2014;Feuillie et al, 2015). Phyllosilicates are assumed to be among the best candidates for the adsorption of nucleotides, a gram of clay can produce up to several hundreds of square meters of reactive surface in water.…”

Adenine interaction with and adsorption on Fe-ZSM-5 zeolites: A prebiotic chemistry study using different techniques

“…The authors attributed this difference to the difference between the mineral crystal structures and the relative proportions of uncharged surface sites [55]. Compared with the seawater used by Baú et al [25], Benetoli et al [50], and Carneiro et al [52], which is rich in Na + and Cl -, the seawater used in this paper better resembles the oceans of the prebiotic Earth, with high concentrations of Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , and SO 4…”

“…The NH 2 group could be also involved in the interaction of adenine with clays, zeolites, and metals [25,50,52,61,62]. However, McNutt et al [63] suggested that the interaction between adenine and Cu (110) occurred through the N atoms from the pyrimidine ring.…”

“…Zeolites could also have played important roles in the origin of life on Earth by concentrating biomolecules and protecting them from degradation by UV radiation and hydrolysis, forming biopolymers and primitive cells [21][22][23][24][25][26]. In fact, relatively high silica zeolites such as mutinaite [27] and tschernichite [28], natural analogues of ZSM-5 and zeolite beta, respectively may have played a role in the biochemical evolution that occurred in the early history of Earth with the incorporation of amino acids into the first primitive proteins [28].…”

Application of chromium‐doped fullerene as a carrier for thymine and uracil nucleotides: Comprehensive density functional theory calculations

“…Uracil is a demethylated form (a methyl group (CH 3 ) is removed) of thymine. The adsorption of thymine on various minerals and metals such as Pd, Cu, Si, Au, Ag, Cd, clay, graphite, zeolites and rutile TiO 2 has been investigated in the literature. Moreover, the interactions between uracil and various minerals and metals including Cu, Si, Au, Ag, graphite and clays have been addressed.…”