NUCLEOTIDE ANALOGS BASED ON PENTAERYTHRITOL - AN HYPOTHESIS

The synthesis of ribose and ribose-based nucleotides under reasonable prebiotic conditions has not been achieved. Glycerol has been suggeste d as a structural unit that might have preceded ribose in the evolutio nary emergence of RNA. Template-directed oligomerizations of nucleotid e analogs based on glycerol, however, have been only partially success ful. Recent studies on the effect of ultraviolet irradiation of formal dehyde solutions have shown that the reduced sugar pentaerythritol is formed with great specificity. I argue that pentaerythritol is potenti ally capable of being converted by simple chemistry into a series of n ucleoside analogs related to barbituric acid. These analogs may be abl e to take part in nucleic acid-like interactions and could therefore b e of potential interest as a new class of candidates as RNA precursors .