HR: 0800h
AN: B31B-0993    [Abstracts]
TI: Montmorillonite Clay-Catalyzed Synthesis of RNA Oligomers
AU: * Ferris, J P
EM: ferrij@rpi.edu
AF: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Dept. of Chermistry and NY Center for Studies on the Origins of Life, Troy, NY 12180 United States
AU: Miyakawa, S
EM: smiyakawa@aol.com
AF: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Dept. of Chermistry and NY Center for Studies on the Origins of Life, Troy, NY 12180 United States
AU: Huang, W
EM: huangwhxiao@yahoo.com
AF: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Dept. of Chermistry and NY Center for Studies on the Origins of Life, Troy, NY 12180 United States
AU: Joshi, P
EM: joship2@rpi.edu
AF: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Dept. of Chermistry and NY Center for Studies on the Origins of Life, Troy, NY 12180 United States
AB: It is proposed that catalysis had a central role in the origins of life. This will be illustrated using the montmorillonite clay-catalyzed synthesis of oligomers of RNA from activated monomers, (Ferris and Ertem, 1993) a possible step in the origin of the RNA world (Ferris, 2005). Structural analysis of oligomers formed in the reaction of the activated monomer of 5'-AMP with that of 5'-CMP demonstrated that the oligomers formed were not produced by random synthesis but rather the sequences observed were directed by the montmorillonite catalyst (Miyakawa and Ferris, 2003). RNA oligomers containing up to 40 mers have been synthesized in reactions performed in water at 25 oC in the presence of montmorillonite (Huang and Ferris, 2003). Analysis of the structure elements in these oligomers from the 7 to 39 mers showed that they did not vary. Reaction of D, L-mixtures of the activated monomers of A and U resulted in the formation of greater amounts of the homochiral amounts of dimers and trimers of A than would be expected if there was no selectivity in the reaction. A limited number of the dimers and trimers of U were also formed but here the selectivity was for the formation of an excess of heterochiral products (Joshi et al., 2000). A postulate that explains why homochiral trimers of U are not formed and the significance of catalysis in prebiotic synthesis will be discussed. Ferris, J.P. (2005) Origins of life, molecular basis of. In R.A. Meyers, Ed. Encyclopedia of Molecular Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine, 10. Wiley-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, Germany. Ferris, J.P., and Ertem, G. (1993) Montmorillonite catalysis of RNA oligomer formation in aqueous solution. A model for the prebiotic formation of RNA. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 115, 12270-12275. Huang, W., and Ferris, J.P. (2003) Synthesis of 35-40 mers of RNA oligomers from unblocked monomers. A simple approach to the RNA world. Chem. Commun., 1458-1459. Joshi, P.C., Pitsch, S., and Ferris, J.P. (2000) Homochiral selection in the montmorillonite-catalyzed and uncatalyzed prebiotic synthesis of RNA. Chem. Commun., 2497-2498. Miyakawa, S., and Ferris, J.P. (2003) Sequence- and Regioselectivity in the montmorillonite-catalyzed synthesis of RNA. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 125, 8202-8208.
UR: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/chem/faculty/ferris/ferris.html
DE: 8424 Hydrothermal systems (0450, 1034, 3017, 3616, 4832, 8135)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005