A Nonenzymatic Analog of Pyrimidine Nucleobase Biosynthesis.

ABSTRACT: Metabolic theories for the origin of life posit that inorganic catalysts enabled self-organized chemical precursors to the pathways of metabolism, including those that make genetic molecules. Recently, experiments showing nonenzymatic versions of a number of core metabolic pathways have started to support this idea. However, experimental demonstrations of nonenzymatic reaction sequences along the de novo ribonucleotide biosynthesis pathways are limited. Here we show that all three reactions of pyrimidine nucleobase biosynthesis that convert aspartate to orotate proceed at 60 °C without photochemistry under aqueous conditions in the presence of metals such as Cu²⁺ and Mn⁴⁺ . Combining reactions into one-pot variants is also possible. Life may not have invented pyrimidi

SUBMITTER: Yi J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9325535 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature