ArticleNucleic acids research2020
Regioselective formation of RNA strands in the absence of magnesium ions.
Article in Nucleic acids research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- High-Yield Prebiotic Polymerization of 2',3'-Cyclic Nucleotides under Wet-Dry Cycling.ACS central science · 2025Article
- A quantitative model of enzyme-free copying of RNA with dimers.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Amino acids catalyse RNA formation under ambient alkaline conditions.Nature communications · 2025Article
- On the aqueous origins of the condensation polymers of life.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2024Review
- Enzyme-Free Copying of 12 Bases of RNA with Dinucleotides.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2022Article
- Carbodiimide-Driven Dimerization and Self-Assembly of Artificial, Ribose-Based Amphiphiles.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2022Article
- Determining the Diastereoselectivity of the Formation of Dipeptidonucleotides by NMR Spectroscopy.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2021Article
- Single nucleotide translation without ribosomes.Nature chemistry · 2021Article
- 2'/3' Regioselectivity of Enzyme-Free Copying of RNA Detected by NMR.Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The oligomerization of ribonucleotides can produce short RNA strands in the absence of enzymes. This reaction gives one of two regioisomeric phosphodiester linkages, a 2',5'- or a 3',5'-diester. The former, non-natural linkage is detrimental for duplex stability, and is known to form preferentially in oligomerizations occurring in homogeneous solution with preactivated nucleotides in the presence of magnesium cations. We have studied ribonucleotide oligomerization with in situ activation, using NMR as monitoring technique. Unexpectedly, the known preference for 2',5'-linkages in the oligomerization of AMP was reversed in the absence of magnesium ions at slightly basic pH. Further, oligomerization was surprisingly efficient in the absence of Mg2+ salts, producing oligomers long enough for duplex formation. A quantitative systems chemistry analysis then revealed that the absence of magnesium ions favors the activation of nucleotides, and that the high concentration of active species can compensate for slower coupling. Further, organocatalytic intermediates can help to overcome the unfavorable regioselectivity of the magnesium-catalyzed reactions. Our findings allay concerns that RNA may have been difficult to form in the absence of enzymes. They also show that there is an efficient path to genetic material that does not require mineral surfaces or cations known to catalyze RNA hydrolysis.
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