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Genesis - In The Beginning pp 3–33Cite as

The Prebiotic Chemistry of Alternative Nucleic Acids

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Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 22))

Abstract

To adapt and survive, life as we know it must have a genetic component to pass on information accumulated during natural selection. It has been suggested that life may have begun with a self-replicating RNA molecule. This appears chemically untenable as the prebiotic synthesis of RNA was unlikely on the primitive Earth. It is now known that biological nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) are not chemically unique in their ability to serve as informational templates. Many structural isomers of nucleic acids are now known. Alternative genetic polymers that were more easily synthesized under plausible geochemical conditions may have preceded RNA. Despite some 50 years of research, many of the structural alterations of nucleic acids of possible relevance to the origin of life remain uninvestigated, though this may prove to be one of the most experimentally tractable areas in prebiotic chemistry. Various structures and the constraints posed by prebiotic chemistry are reviewed herein.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Carnegie Institution for Science, 5251 Broad Branch Rd. NW, Washington, DC, 20015, USA

    H. James Cleaves II

  2. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0212, USA

    Jeffrey L. Bada

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  1. H. James Cleaves II
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  2. Jeffrey L. Bada
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Correspondence to H. James Cleaves II .

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  1. University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

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Cleaves, H.J., Bada, J.L. (2012). The Prebiotic Chemistry of Alternative Nucleic Acids. In: Seckbach, J. (eds) Genesis - In The Beginning. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2941-4_1

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