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Nucleobases on the Primitive Earth: Their Sources and Stabilities

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Prebiotic Chemistry and Chemical Evolution of Nucleic Acids

Part of the book series: Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology ((NUCLEIC,volume 35))

Abstract

Nucleobases are nitrogen heterocycles that are key structural components of biological nucleic acids. Some theories for the origins of life suggest a role for environmentally supplied organic compounds, including nucleobases, as part of a primordial RNA or pre-RNA world. Over the last 65 years, many potentially prebiotic synthetic mechanisms have been experimentally demonstrated for nucleobases, and their presence in extraterrestrial materials has been extensively verified, suggesting some of these are valid explanations for how the environment produces them. However, the abundance of nucleobases in primitive environments would depend on the balance of the rates of their environmental synthesis and decomposition. The literature regarding chemical aspects of these questions is briefly reviewed here.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by a JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “Hadean Bioscience,” grant number JP26106003. This project was also supported by the ELSI Origins Network (EON), which is supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

    H. James Cleaves II

  2. The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA

    H. James Cleaves II

  3. Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Washington, DC, USA

    H. James Cleaves II

  4. NSF-NASA Center for Chemical Evolution, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    H. James Cleaves II

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Correspondence to H. James Cleaves II .

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  1. NSF-NASA Center for Chemical Evolution, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA; Unidad de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Dept. Biologia de Sistemas, Universidad de Alcala, Madrid, Spain

    César Menor-Salván

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Cleaves, H.J. (2018). Nucleobases on the Primitive Earth: Their Sources and Stabilities. In: Menor-Salván , C. (eds) Prebiotic Chemistry and Chemical Evolution of Nucleic Acids. Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology, vol 35. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93584-3_1

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