The assembly of ancient informational polymers from nucleotide precursors is the central challenge of life's origin on our planet. Among the possible solutions, dry polymerization of 3',5'-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (3',5'-cGMP) has been proposed as a candidate to create oligonucleotides of 15-20 units in length. However, the reported sensitivity of the reaction to the presence of cations raised questions of whether this chemistry could be relevant in a geological context. The experiments in this study show that the presence of cations is not restrictive as long as the reaction is conducted in an acidic environment, in contrast to previous reports that suggested optimal conditions at pH 9.

Department of Geological Sciences Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 61137 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Physics NanoSystems Initiative Munich and Center for Nanoscience Ludwig Maximilians Universität München Amalienstrasse 54 80799 Munich Germany

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

Tescan Brno s r o Libušina třída 1 62300 Brno Czech Republic

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