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Guanine, Adenine, and Hypoxanthine Production in UV-Irradiated Formamide Solutions: Relaxation of the Requirements for Prebiotic Purine Nucleobase Formation

  1. Hannah L. Barks 1,3,
  2. Ragan Buckley 1,3,
  3. Gregory A. Grieves1,
  4. Ernesto Di Mauro2,
  5. Nicholas V. Hud Prof.1,
  6. Thomas M. Orlando Prof.1

Article first published online: 21 MAY 2010

DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201000074

Issue

ChemBioChem

ChemBioChem

Volume 11, Issue 9, pages 1240–1243, June 14, 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

Barks , H. L., Buckley , R., Grieves, G. A., Di Mauro, E., Hud, N. V. and Orlando, T. M. (2010), Guanine, Adenine, and Hypoxanthine Production in UV-Irradiated Formamide Solutions: Relaxation of the Requirements for Prebiotic Purine Nucleobase Formation. ChemBioChem, 11: 1240–1243. doi: 10.1002/cbic.201000074

Author Information

  1. 1

    School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0400 (USA), Fax: (+1) 404-385-6057

  2. 2

    Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologica Molecolare, Università La Sapienza, P. le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome (Italy)

  3. 3

    These authors contributed equally to this work.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 7 JUN 2010
  2. Article first published online: 21 MAY 2010
  3. Manuscript Received: 6 MAR 2010

Funded by

  • NSF. Grant Number: CHE-0739189
  • NASA Exobiology. Grant Number: NNG05GP20G, NNX08A014G
  • European Space Agency

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Keywords:

  • formamide;
  • nitrogen heterocycles;
  • photochemistry;
  • prebiotic syntheses;
  • purines
Thumbnail image of graphical abstract

Relaxed requirements: We demonstrate the formation of adenine, hypoxanthine, and guanine from heated (130 °C), UV-irradiated formamide solutions in the absence of an inorganic catalyst. Evidence is also provided that “classical” HCN pathways for purine nucleobase production are also active in heated and UV-irradiated formamide reactions.

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