Dry polymerization of 3',5'-cyclic GMP to long strands of RNA

Abstract

Recent progress in the synthesis of nucleotides from prebiotically plausible precursors has opened up new ways to explain the origin of genetic matter. Mechanisms for the polymerization of nucleotides without the help of catalysts are, however, rare. Complementary to the experiments done by Costanzo et al., we found that drying 3',5'-cyclic GMP leads to poly-G RNA strands with lengths of up to 40 nucleotides. We also show that the polymerization to long RNA strands is considerably more efficient under dry conditions than for cGMP polymerization in water. The length depends on the incubation time of dry nucleotides at temperatures of 40-80 °C. No enzymes or other catalysts are needed for successful polymerization.

Keywords: RNA; cGMP; molecular evolution; nucleotides; polymerization.