Abstract
Besides having a large capacity for taking up organic molecules, clay minerals can catalyze a variety of organic reactions. Derived from rock weathering, clay minerals would have been abundant in the early Earth. As such, they might be expected to play a role in chemical evolution. The interactions of clay minerals with biopolymers, including RNA, have been the subject of many investigations. The behavior of RNA components at clay mineral surfaces needs to be assessed if we are to appreciate how clays might catalyze the formation of nucleosides, nucleotides and polynucleotides in the “RNA world”. The adsorption of purines, pyrimidines and nucleosides from aqueous solution to clay minerals is affected by suspension pH. With montmorillonite, adsorption is also influenced by the nature of the exchangeable cations. Here, we review the interactions of some clay minerals with RNA components.
Highlights
Because of their fine particle size, large surface area, and peculiar charge characteristics, clay minerals are capable of adsorbing and catalyzing the polymerization of various organic molecules [1].Clay minerals have been implicated in chemical evolution and associated with the origin of life onEarth [2,3]
Clay minerals would be dispersed in the ocean of the early Earth in the form of very fine particles that would adsorb organic molecules dissolved in the ocean
Hashizume et al [18] previously determined the isotherms for the adsorption of adenine, cytosine, uracil, ribose, and phosphate by Mg2+-exchanged montmorillonite at pH 7–8
Summary
Because of their fine particle size, large surface area, and peculiar charge characteristics, clay minerals are capable of adsorbing and catalyzing the polymerization of various organic molecules [1]. Clay minerals would be dispersed in the ocean of the early Earth in the form of very fine particles that would adsorb organic molecules dissolved in the ocean. Clay minerals used for studies of the origin of life are generally a form of sheet silicate, such as smectite and kaoline minerals. Bioorganic molecules, polymerized into biopolymers in the interlayers of clay minerals, might replicate with the aid of the mineral host over time. This hypothesis is unique, but its validity is difficult to demonstrate experimentally [6]. We summarize adsorption of RNA components with some clay minerals, including smectite, kaoline minerals, allophane, and layered double hydroxide
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