Journal
CHEMBIOCHEM
Volume 13, Issue 7, Pages 999-1008Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201200068
Keywords
3'; 5'-cGMP; base catalysis; click reaction; RNA polymerization; stacking interactions
Funding
- Italian Space Agency
- ASI-INAF [I/015/07/0]
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The problem of the abiotic origin of RNA from prebiotically plausible compounds remains unsolved. As a potential partial solution, we report the spontaneous polymerization of 3',5'-cyclic GMP in water, in formamide, in dimethylformamide, and (in water) in the presence of a Bronsted base such as 1,8-diazabicycloundec-7-ene. The reaction is untemplated, does not require enzymatic activities, is thermodynamically favoured and selectively yields 3',5'-bonded ribopolymers containing as many as 25 nucleotides. We propose a reaction pathway on the basis of 1) the measured stacking of the 3',5'-cyclic monomers, 2) the activation by Bronsted bases, 3) the determination (by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, by 31P NMR, and by specific ribonucleases) of the molecular species produced. The reaction pathway has several of the attributes of a click-like reaction.
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