Abstract
Understanding how life began is one of the most fascinating problems to solve. By approaching this enigma from a chemistry perspective, the goal is to define what series of chemical reactions could lead to the synthesis of nucleotides, amino acids, lipids, and other cellular components from simple feedstocks under prebiotically plausible conditions. It is well established that evolution of life involved RNA which plays central roles in both inheritance and catalysis. In this review, we present historically important and recently published articles aimed at understanding the emergence of RNA nucleosides and nucleotides on the early Earth.
Highlights
How did life begin? Where did the essential components to life—nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids—come from? To answer these fundamental questions, efforts have been made to understand the prebiotic synthesis of these biomolecules through chemical processes [1]
A large number of astrophysicists, physicists, and mathematicians succeeded in identifying the plausible chemical composition of the early Earth using radio telescopes and spacecraft, such as the Atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (ALMA) implanted in
Miller–Urey experiments [11], which mark the beginning of prebiotic chemistry, inspired Oro et al to analyze the products formed when ammonium cyanide was refluxed in aqueous solution, leading to the discovery that adenine can be formed by cyanide polymerization [12]
Summary
How did life begin? Where did the essential components to life—nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids—come from? To answer these fundamental questions, efforts have been made to understand the prebiotic synthesis of these biomolecules through chemical processes [1]. Miller–Urey experiments [11], which mark the beginning of prebiotic chemistry, inspired Oro et al to analyze the products formed when ammonium cyanide was refluxed in aqueous solution, leading to the discovery that adenine can be formed by cyanide polymerization [12]. Since this discovery, the prebiotic synthesis of RNA has been intensely investigated. Life 2018, 8, 57 possible routes for the formation of nucleosides and nucleotides, RNA building blocks, under prebiotic conditions will be discussed.
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