Adsorption of nucleotides onto Fe–Mg–Al rich swelling clays

Abstract

Mineral surfaces may have played a role in the origin of the first biopolymers, by concentrating organic monomers from a dilute ocean. Swelling clays provide a high surface area for the concentration of prebiotic monomers, and have therefore been the subject of numerous investigations. In that context, montmorillonite, the most abundant swelling clay in modern environments, has been extensively studied with regard to adsorption and polymerization of nucleic acids. However, montmorillonite was probably rather marginal on the primitive ocean floor compared to iron–magnesium rich phyllosilicates such as nontronite that results from the hydrothermal alteration of a mafic or ultramafic oceanic crust. In the present paper, we study the adsorption of nucleotides on montmorillonite and nontronite, at various pH and ionic strength conditions plausible for Archean sea-water. A thorough characterization of the mineral surfaces shows that nucleotide adsorb mainly on the edge faces of the smectites by ligand exchange between the phosphate groups of the nucleotides and the –OH groups from the edge sites over a wide pH range (4–10). Nontronite is more reactive than montmorillonite. At low pH, additional ion exchange may play a role as the nucleotides become positively charged.