Prebiotic Pathway from Ribose to RNA Formation

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 22; no. 8; p. 3857
• Main Author: Banfalvi, Gaspar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 08.04.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Ammonia; Asymmetry; Backbone; Bases (nucleic acids); Carbon; Chemical elements; Chemical reactions; fitting of aldopentoses; genRNA synthesis; Hydrogen cyanide; hydrolysis of preRNA; Metabolism; Nucleoside triphosphates; Nucleosides; Nucleotides; Phosphorylation; phosphorylation of NMPs; Prebiotics; Precursors; preRNA synthesis; Review; Ribose; ribose formation; Substrates; Symmetry; phosphorylation of NMPs; genRNA synthesis; hydrolysis of preRNA; preRNA synthesis; ribose formation; fitting of aldopentoses
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms22083857

At the focus of abiotic chemical reactions is the synthesis of ribose. No satisfactory explanation was provided as to the missing link between the prebiotic synthesis of ribose and prebiotic RNA (preRNA). Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is assumed to have been the principal precursor in the prebiotic formation of aldopentoses in the formose reaction and in the synthesis of ribose. Ribose as the best fitting aldopentose became the exclusive sugar component of RNA. The elevated yield of ribose synthesis at higher temperatures and its protection from decomposition could have driven the polymerization of the ribose-phosphate backbone and the coupling of nucleobases to the backbone. RNA could have come into being without the involvement of nucleotide precursors. The first nucleoside monophosphate is likely to have appeared upon the hydrolysis of preRNA contributed by the presence of reactive 2'-OH moieties in the preRNA chain. As a result of phosphorylation, nucleoside monophosphates became nucleoside triphosphates, substrates for the selective synthesis of genRNA.