The formation of nucleosides in abiotic conditions is a major hurdle in origin-of-life studies. We have determined the pathway of a general reaction leading to the one-pot synthesis of ribo- and 2'-deoxy-ribonucleosides from sugars and purine nucleobases under proton irradiation in the presence of a chondrite meteorite. These conditions simulate the presumptive conditions in space or on an early Earth fluxed by slow protons from the solar wind, potentially mimicking a plausible prebiotic scenario. The reaction (i) requires neither pre-activated precursors nor intermediate purification/concentration steps, (ii) is based on a defined radical mechanism, and (iii) is characterized by stereoselectivity, regioselectivity and (poly)glycosylation. The yield is enhanced by formamide and meteorite relative to the control reaction.

Centre de Biophysique Moleculaire UPR CNRS4301 Orléans France

CNRS Institut des Matériaux de Paris Centre Paris France

Department of Ecological and Biological Sciences Via S Camillo de Lellis University of Tuscia 01100 Viterbo Italy

Institute of Biophysics Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Královopolská 135 CZ 61265 Brno Czech Republic

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research JINR's Laboratory of Radiation Biology Dubna Russia

Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials Department of Physical Chemistry Faculty of Science Palacky University 17 Listopadu 771 46 Olomouc Czech Republic

Sorbonne Universités UPMC Paris 06 CNRS UMR 7197 Laboratoire de Réactivité de Surface 4 place Jussieu F 75005 Paris France

Sorbonne Universités UPMC Paris06 CNRS UMR 8220 Laboratoire d'Archéologie Moléculaire et Structurale Paris France

Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 12;9(1):4649. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-40290-6. PubMed

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Chemomimesis and Molecular Darwinism in Action: From Abiotic Generation of Nucleobases to Nucleosides and RNA

Wet-dry cycles enable the parallel origin of canonical and non-canonical nucleosides by continuous synthesis