Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35960316›Full record

ArticleJournal of molecular evolution2022

Nucleobases in Meteorites to Nucleobases in RNA and DNA?

Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, Aaron D Goldman, David A Liberles, Karyn L Rogers, Yitzhak Tor

Abstract readLetter
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of molecular evolution, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Before LUCA: unearthing the chemical roots of metabolism.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  2. Pioneering role of RNA in the early evolution of life.Genetics and molecular biology · 2024
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Ramanarayanan KrishnamurthyDepartment of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA. rkrishna@scripps.edu.ORCID 0000-0001-5238-610X
Aaron D GoldmanDepartment of Biology, Oberlin College and Conservatory, Oberlin, OH, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-1115-3697
David A LiberlesDepartment of Biology and Center for Computational Genetics and Genomics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-3487-8826
Karyn L RogersDepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Rensselaer Astrobiology Research and Education Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7588-4603
Yitzhak TorDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-3726-7799

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Nucleic acids likely played a foundational role in the origin of life. However, the prebiotic chemistry of nucleoside and nucleotide synthesis has proved challenging on a number of fronts. The recent discovery of both pyrimidine and purine nucleobases in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites has garnered much attention from both the popular press and the scientific community. Here, we discuss these findings in the context of nucleoside/nucleotide prebiotic chemistry. We consider that the main challenge of prebiotic nucleoside synthesis, that of nucleosidic bond formation, is not addressed by the identification nucleobases in meteorites. We further discuss issues of selection that arise from the observation that such meteorites contain both canonical and non-canonical nucleobases. In sum, we argue that, despite the major analytical achievement of identifying and characterizing nucleobases in meteorites, this observation does little to advance our understanding of the prebiotic chemistry that could have led to the first genetic molecules that gave rise to us.

Indexed as

MeteoroidsNucleic AcidsDNANucleosidesNucleotidesPurinesPyrimidinesRNADNANucleic AcidsNucleosidesNucleotidesPurinesPyrimidinesRNA

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.