Cover Picture

Cover Picture: Guanine, Adenine, and Hypoxanthine Production in UV-Irradiated Formamide Solutions: Relaxation of the Requirements for Prebiotic Purine Nucleobase Formation (ChemBioChem 9/2010)

  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: 7 JUN 2010

DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201090037

Issue

ChemBioChem

ChemBioChem

Volume 11, Issue 9, page 1153, 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), Cover Picture: Guanine, Adenine, and Hypoxanthine Production in UV-Irradiated Formamide Solutions: Relaxation of the Requirements for Prebiotic Purine Nucleobase Formation (ChemBioChem 9/2010). ChemBioChem, 11: 1153. doi: 10.1002/cbic.201090037

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: 7 JUN 2010

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Keywords:

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

The cover picture shows a can of prebiotic soup for an improved “product”, thanks to the addition of UV photons. On p. 1240 ff., N. V. Hud, T. M. Orlando and co-workers demonstrate that model prebiotic reactions with formamide as a source material produce a greater yield and diversity of purine nucleobases when formamide is irradiated with UV photons during heating, in the presence and absence of inorganic catalysts. Guanine is also observed for the first time in model prebiotic formamide reactions, as emphasized by the pasta shape. The observation that purine nucleobases are still formed in UV-irradiated/heated formamide solutions in the absence of inorganic catalysts (i.e., with “100 % less salt”) further relaxes the requirements for obtaining nucleobases on the prebiotic Earth.

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