An all-purine precursor of nucleic acids
Open accessAbstract
The theory is proposed that the pyrimidines in extant nucleic acids are postenzymatic substitutes for their isoelectronic and isogeometric position 3-bonded purine analogs xanthine and isoguanine, which were sibling products in a preenzymatic de novo purine pathway.
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A two-base system has been proposed as a progenitor of the four-base system, and a ribozyme can be composed of only two bases.
“A two-base system has been proposed as a progenitor of the four-base system (12,58), and a ribozyme can be composed of only two bases (25).”
From Prebiotically plausible mechanisms increase compositional diversity of nucleic acid sequences (2012) · cites this paper as [58]
Cites
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RNA evolution and the origins of life
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Carbonaceous Meteorites Contain a Wide Range of Extraterrestrial Nucleobases
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Before enzymes and templates: theory of surface metabolism
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Self-citationThe stability of the RNA bases: implications for the origin of life
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Non-Enzymatic Glycolysis and Pentose Phosphate Pathway-Like Reactions in a Plausible Archean Ocean
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A ribozyme composed of only two different nucleotides
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Prebiotically plausible mechanisms increase compositional diversity of nucleic acid sequences
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- Authors
- Wächtershäuser, G.
- Corresponding author
- Wächtershäuser, G
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 1988-02
- Volume
- 85
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1134-1135
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC279720
- OpenAlex
- W2043330847
- Cited by
- 100
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 1.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Biochemical and Molecular Research
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry
- Keywords
- purine nucleotides, xanthine, isoguanine, de novo purine synthesis, origin of life, nucleic acid precursors
- MeSH terms
- Base Composition, Nucleic Acids, Purines
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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