We report that 3',5'-cyclic CMP undergoes nonenzymatic di- and trimerization at 20 °C under dry conditions upon proton or UV irradiation. The reaction involves stacking of the cyclic monomers and subsequent polymerization through serial transphosphorylations between the stacked monomers. Proton- and UV-induced oligomerization of 3',5'-cyclic CMP demonstrates that pyrimidines-similar to purines-might also have taken part in the spontaneous generation of RNA under plausible prebiotic conditions as well as in an extraterrestrial context. The observed polymerization of naturally occurring 3',5'-cyclic nucleotides supports the possibility that the extant genetic nucleic acids might have originated by way of a straight Occamian path, starting from simple reactions between plausibly preactivated monomers.

• MeSH
• chemické modely MeSH
• cirkulární dichroismus MeSH
• CMP cyklický chemie   účinky záření   MeSH
• evoluce chemická MeSH
• oligoribonukleotidy chemická syntéza   MeSH
• polymerizace MeSH
• protony MeSH
• RNA chemická syntéza   MeSH
• spektrometrie hmotnostní - ionizace laserem za účasti matrice MeSH
• ultrafialové záření MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH