Prebiotic Reactions at Low Temperatures

We do not yet know what the optimal temperatures for the evolution of life were. It is generally accepted that the prebiotic chemistry on the primeval Earth must have taken place at moderate temperatures. It is, however, also possible that various 

It has been pointed out that some important biomolecules have short half-lives at higher temperatures, as is clearly shown by laboratory experiments. The synthesis of adenine in the HCN oligomerisation demonstrated that chemical processes can also take place at lower temperatures. After hydrolysis of the oligomerisation products, adenine was isolated after 60-100 days from 0.01 M solutions at a pH of 9.2. Addition of glycol nitrile caused the yield to increase by a factor of four, i.e., to 48 pg/L (Schwartz et al., 1982). 

Monnard et al. from the laboratory of D. W. Deamer also worked on ice/eutectic phases at 255 K. They studied the influence of solutions of inorganic ions (such as Na+, CD, Mg2+, Ca2+ and Fe2+) both on the formation of vesicles and on non-enzymatic polymerization of activated RNA monomers (Monnard et al., 2002). 

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The synthesis of pyrimidines under specific prebiotic conditions, at low temperature, has apparently been carried out successfully (Fig. 4.8). The formation of the DNA building blocks was carried out by freezing out a dilute solution of cyanoacetaldehyde (CAA) and urea or guanidine. The concentration of CAA was only 1(T3 M, that of guanidine 1M. The reaction took 2 months at 273 K and a pH of 8.1. Yields were as follows ... 

More complex, but still feasible, is the synthesis of pyrimidine bases from simple prebiotic substrates, although the reported yields of these reactions are relatively low. In this context, two main prebiotic precursors have been identified cyanoethine and a primary product of its hydrolysis, cyanoacetaldehyde. These compounds contain a preformed C-C bond which is incorporated in the C5-C6 position of the pyrimidine ring. In 1968 Ferris and co-workers reported that the reaction of cyanoethine with cyanate at 30 °C yields cytosine and, after its hydrolysis, uracil in acceptable yield [27]. trans-Cyanovinylurea was recovered as a key intermediate for this transformation. However, this reaction requires relatively high concentrations of cyanate (>0.1 mol/1), unlikely to occur in aqueous media due to its rapid degradation to carbon dioxide and ammonia. Cyanoethine also reacts with cyanate and yields cytosine and uracil at elevated temperatures. In this reaction urea or guanidine (also considered as prebiotic organic compounds) can easily replace cyanate (Figure 8.8) [26]. 

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