Enhanced Nonenzymatic RNA Copying with 2-Aminoimidazole Activated Nucleotides
Open accessAbstract
Achieving efficient nonenzymatic replication of RNA is an important step toward the synthesis of self-replicating protocells that may mimic early forms of life. Despite recent progress, the nonenzymatic copying of templates containing mixed sequences remains slow and inefficient. Here we demonstrate that activating nucleotides with 2-aminoimidazole results in superior reaction kinetics and improved yields of primer extension reaction products. This new leaving group significantly accelerates monomer addition as well as trimer-assisted RNA primer extension, allowing efficient copying of a variety of short RNA templates with mixed sequences.
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2-aminoimidazole is an effective leaving group in nonenzymatic template-directed RNA synthesis, a potentially prebiotic process for replication of genetic material.
“As shown by Szostak and co-workers [132], this molecule is an effective leaving group in the context of nonenzymatic template-directed RNA synthesis – a potentially prebiotic process for replication of genetic material.”
From Prebiotic Reaction Networks in Water (2020) · cites this paper as [132]
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- Authors
- Li, L., Prywes, N., Tam, C. P., O’Flaherty, D. K., Lelyveld, V. S., Izgu, E. C., Pal, A., & Szostak, J. W.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Massachusetts General Hospital , , , ,
- Corresponding author
- Szostak, Jack W.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2017-01-24
- Volume
- 139
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1810-1813
- ISSN
- 0002-7863 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-5126
- PMC
- PMC6326525
- OpenAlex
- W2583079108
- Cited by
- 176
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 13
- FWCI
- 12.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of the American Chemical Society (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (NA)
- Division of Chemistry (CHE- 1607034)
- Simons Foundation (290363)
- Life Sciences Research Foundation (NA)
- Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Nature et Technologies (NA)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry
- Keywords
- 2-aminoimidazole, leaving groups, primer extension, origin of life, reaction kinetics
- MeSH terms
- Imidazoles, Nucleotides, RNA
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