Cavitation as a plausible driving force for the prebiotic formation of N9 purine nucleosides

Patehebieke, Yeersen; Zhao, Ze-Run; Wang, Su; Xu, Haoxing; Chen, Qian-Qian; Wang, Xiao

doi:10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100375

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Under the currently investigated conditions, we have not yet found an effective way to overcome this problem. We have discovered that cavitation (both acoustic and hydrodynamic) is helpful in forming an elevated amount of N9 purine nucleoside, compared with 6-ribosyamino products [22], but whether the hypothetical cavitational condition was compatible with the environment rich in metal salts and clay minerals, remains unknown. Therefore, the N1-selective ribosylation of cytosine is beyond the scope of this study.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Prebiotic Ribosylation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Enabled by Metal Cations and Clay Minerals

Chen

Zhao

Wang

2021

Life

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We report a prebiotically relevant solution to the N1-ribosylation of pyrimidine nucleobases, a well-known challenge to the RNA world hypothesis. We found that the presence of metal cations and clay minerals enable the previously unachievable direct ribosylation of uracil. Spectroscopy and chromatography analyses confirmed the formation of ribosylated uracil. The method can be extended to the ribosylation of 2-pyrimidinone. These findings are also compatible with the metal-doped-clay model, developed by our lab for the unified route of the selection of ribose and subsequent syntheses of nucleotide and RNA.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Prebiotic Ribosylation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Enabled by Metal Cations and Clay Minerals

Chen

Zhao

Wang

2021

Life

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“…Under the currently investigated conditions, we have not yet found an effective way to overcome this problem. We have discovered that cavitation (both acoustic and hydrodynamic) is helpful in forming elevated amount of N9 purine nucleoside compared with 6-ribosyamino products, 19 but whether the cavitational condition is compatible with the environment rich in metal salts and clay minerals, remains unclear. Therefore, the ribosylation of cytosine is out of the scope of this study.…”

Section: Figure 1 Direct Ribosylation Of Uracil Enabled By Metal Salts and Kaolinitementioning

confidence: 99%

A Prebiotic Ribosylation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Promoted by Metal Cations and Clay Minerals

Chen¹,

Zhao²,

Wang³

2021

Preprint

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We report a prebiotically relevant solution to the N1-ribosylation of pyrimidine nucleobases, a well-known challenge in the RNA World hypothesis. It is found that the presence of metal cations and clay mineral enables the previously unachievable direct ribosylation of uracil, providing by far the highest yield. Spectroscopy and chromatography analyses confirmed the formation of ribosylated uracil. The method can also be extended to the ribosylation of 2-pyrimidinone. These findings are also compatible with the metal-doped-clay model developed by our lab for the unified route of the selection of ribose and subsequent syntheses of nucleotide and RNA.

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“…9 Later, our lab demonstrated an unconventional strategy that leads to an elevated amount of N9-purine ribonucleosides, utilising acoustic or hydrodynamic cavitation. 10 More recently, we discovered that certain minerals can serve as heterogeneous catalysts to enable highly selective ribosylation at purine's N9 and pyrimidine's N1. 11 However, the selectivities of β-furanoside in these strategies are similar to that of the Carell route.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Prebiotic Selection of β-Furanoside-5'-Phosphate as the Sole Configuration toward the Synthesis of Extant RNA

Zhao,

Xu,

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The cause of the selection of β-furanoside-5'-phosphate as the backbone configuration of RNA during life’s origins has not been fully determined. Previous attempts were mostly unsuccessful in demonstrating either a selective synthesis or a selection mechanism for β-furanoside and 5'-nucleotide in the nucleosidation and phosphorylation steps. These questions are answered in this study. Inspired by the chromatographic elution order of nucleoside and nucleotide isomers, a unique separation mechanism has been established. It is discovered that β-furanoside is the most permeable configurational isomer across a lipid protomembrane as compared with other isomers, and becomes the most abundant isomer through permeation. In the meantime, phosphate can be transported across the lipid membrane and preserved inside the protocell in its soluble form, thereby circumventing its abundance and availability issues. The phosphorylation step is likely to take place intracellularly, where the formed nucleotide isomers are again screened by the lipid membrane via a reverse permeation, leaving 5'-nucleotide the enriched ribonucleotide species in the protocell for the upcoming transformations such as oligomerization. These findings depict a primitive selection mechanism driven by physicochemical forces to advance critical steps in molecular evolution, which could be one of the earliest protocellular functions.

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Cavitation as a plausible driving force for the prebiotic formation of N9 purine nucleosides

Cited by 13 publications

References 45 publications

A Prebiotic Ribosylation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Enabled by Metal Cations and Clay Minerals

A Prebiotic Ribosylation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Enabled by Metal Cations and Clay Minerals

A Prebiotic Ribosylation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Promoted by Metal Cations and Clay Minerals

A Prebiotic Selection of β-Furanoside-5'-Phosphate as the Sole Configuration toward the Synthesis of Extant RNA

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