Concurrent Prebiotic Formation of Nucleoside‐Amidophosphates and Nucleoside‐Triphosphates Potentiates Transition from Abiotic to Biotic Polymerization
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We report the synthesis of 2'-modified nucleosides designed specifically for incorporating labels into oligonucleotides. Conversion of these nucleosides to phosphoramidite and solid support-bound derivatives proceeds in good yield. Large-scale synthesis of 11-mer oligonucleotides possessing the 2'-modified nucleosides is achieved using these derivatives. Thermal denaturation studies indicate that the presence of 2'-modified nucleosides in 11-mer duplexes has minimal destabilizing effects on the duplex structure when the nucleosides are placed at the duplex termini. The powerful combination of phosphoramidite and support-bound derivatives of 2'-modified nucleosides affords the large-scale preparation of an entirely new class of oligonucleotides. The ability to synthesize oligonucleotides containing label attachment sites at 3', intervening, and 5' locations of a duplex is a significant advance in the development of oligonucleotide conjugates.
The paper deals with phosphorylation in possible prebiotic nonaqueous solvents. To this end, phosphorylation of nucleosides using inorganic phosphates in amide solutions is studied at room and elevated temperatures. Reaction proceeds most readily in formamide and N-methylformamide. Products obtained at elevated temperature are nucleotides, nucleoside 2',3'-cyclic phosphates, and when the phosphate concentration is high, nucleoside diphosphates. At room temperature, adenosine afforded a mixture of nucleotides, but none of the cyclic nucleotide. Conditions leading to the highest relative percentage of cyclic nucleotide involve the use of low concentrations of phosphate and an excess of nucleoside.
The characteristics and efficiencies of biochemical reactions involving nucleoside 5'-diphosphates and -triphosphates (important substrates of RNA and DNA synthesis) under conditions corresponding to the primitive prebiotic earth are investigated. Urea catalysis of the formation of linear inorganic polyphosphates and metal ions promoting the reactions are discussed. Linear polyphosphate was incubated with Mg(++) in the presence of a nucleoside 5'-phosphate, to yield nucleoside 5'-polyphosphates when products are dried, while Mg(++) prompts depolymerization to trimetaphosphate in aqueous solutions. Plausible biogenetic pathways are examined.
Results are presented for an experimental study intended to assess phosphorylation under neither aqueous nor dry thermal conditions. Instead, phosphorylations were attempted in possible nonaqueous prebiotic solvents. Formamide appeared to be the most obvious candidate for phosphorylation studies. Three main classes of phosphorylated products were formed in formamide solution: adenosine monophosphates, cyclic adenosine phosphate, and adenosine diphosphates. Experiments were designed to investigate the extent of phosphorylation of nucleosides in formamide, the relative amounts of nucleoside monophosphate, diphosphates and cyclic phosphate formed and the relative effectiveness of different sources of phosphate as phosphorylating agents in formamide. Reaction variables were temperature, nature of the phosphate or condensed phosphate, nucleoside, concentration of reactants and possible effects of additives. Product identification was based on qualitative and quantitative thin layer chromatography.
The interactions of Ni(II) cation with a representative suite of purine bases and the respective nucleosides and nucleotides have been studied by ultraviolet difference spectroscopy. Apparent association constants were determined for each system at pH 7.0, using computer linear regression coupled with an iteration technique. The specificity of binding of Ni(2+) for the purine nucleotides studied at pH 7.0 was 5-prime-GMP greater than 5-prime-AMP; a similar ordering was also found for the respective nucleosides and bases. In this study binding was not observed for the suite of pyramidines used, although an Ni(2+) -cytidine complex has been observed (Fiskin and Beer, 1965). It was also found that Ni(2+) bound more strongly to the purine 5-prime-nucleotides than to the respective nucleosides and bases. These trends are explained in terms of metal-ligand bonds and available bonding positions on the ligands. A role for metal-ion-nucleotide types of complexes is suggested in the processes that might have given rise to the origin of life.
An investigation of the returned Mars samples for biologically important organic compounds, with emphasis on amino acid, the puring and pyrimidine bases, and nucleosides is proposed. These studies would be conducted on subsurface samples obtained by drilling past the surface oxidizing layer with emphasis on samples containing the larges quantities of organic carbon as determined by the rover gas chromatographic mass spectrometer (GCMS). Extraction of these molecules from the returned samples will be performed using the hydrothermal extraction technique described by Cheng and Ponnamperuma. More rigorous extraction methods will be developed and evaluated. For analysis of the extract for free amino acids or amino acids present in a bound or peptidic form, aliquots will be analyzed by capillary GCMS both before and after hydrolysis with 6N hydrochloric acid. Establishment of the presence of amino acids would then lead to the next logical step which would be the use of chiral stationary gas chromatography phases to determine the enatiomeic composition of the amino acids present, and thus potentially establish their biotic or abiotic origin. Confirmational analyses for amino acids would include ion-exchange and reversed-phase liquid chromatographic analysis. For analyses of the returned Mars samples for nucleobases and nucleosides, affinity and reversed-phase liquid chromatography would be utilized. This technology coupled with scanning UV detection for identification, presents a powerful tool for nucleobase and nucleoside analysis. Mass spectrometric analysis of these compounds would confirm their presence in samples returned form Mars.
The nucleoside analogue 4-(alpha-diformyl-methyl)-1-(beta-D-ribofuranosyl)-2-pyrimidinone (5) was prepared from the corresponding 4-methyl pyrimidinone nucleoside by means of the Vilsmeier reaction. The unprotected nucleoside can be phosphorylated directly with phosphorus oxychloride in triethyl phosphate.
Nucleoside 5'-polyphosphates (N5PP) formed when solutions of nucleoside 5'-phosphates (N5P) and trimetaphosphate (TMP) are dessicated at room temperature are studied by paper chromatography, electrophoresis, and metal catalytic reactions. Divalent Mg ion exhibited superior catalytic function to other divalent metal ions in the reaction. Major reaction products are indicated. The importance of the N5PP series, TMP, and N5-triphosphate as substrates of RNA and DNA synthesis, and under postulated prebiotic conditions likely to obtain during prebiological ages of the earth, is emphasized and discussed. Alternate drying and wetting, evaporation from a prebiotic puddle, concentration of solubles in the remaining liquid phase, metal catalysis, and the role of these substances in the formation of amino acids and long-chain polyphosphates are considered.
General properties and distribution of nucleoside triphosphatases in crude extracts of Escherichia coli
Phosphorylation of nucleosides with polyphosphoric acid
A nucleoside triphosphatase (NTPase) present in highly purified preparations of pea nuclei was partially characterized. The activity of this enzyme was stimulated by divalent cations (Mg2+ = Mn2+ > Ca2+), but was not affected by the monovalent cations, Na+ and K+. The Mg(2+)-dependent activity was further stimulated by concentrations of Ca2+ in the low micromolar range. It could catalyze the hydrolysis of ATP, GTP, UTP, and CTP, all with a pH optimum of 7.5. The nuclear NTPase activity was not inhibited by vanadate, oligomycin, or nitrate, but was inhibited by relatively low concentrations of quercetin and the calmodulin inhibitor, compound 48/80. The NTPase was stimulated more than 50% by red light, and this effect was reversed by subsequent irradiation with far-red light. The photoreversibility of the stimulation indicated that the photoreceptor for this response was phytochrome, an important regulator of photomorphogenesis and gene expression in plants.
The major nucleoside triphosphatase (NTPase) activities in mammalian and pea (Pisum sativum L.) nuclei are associated with enzymes that are very similar both biochemically and immunochemically. The major NTPase from rat liver nuclei appears to be a 46-kD enzyme that represents the N-terminal portion of lamins A and C, two lamina proteins that apparently arise from the same gene by alternate splicing. Monoclonal antibody (MAb) G2, raised to human lamin C, both immunoprecipitates the major (47 kD) NTPase in pea nuclei and recognizes it in western blot analyses. A polyclonal antibody preparation raised to the 47-kD pea NTPase (pc480) reacts with the same lamin bands that are recognized by MAb G2 in mammalian nuclei. The pc480 antibodies also bind to the same lamin-like bands in pea nuclear envelope-matrix preparations that are recognized by G2 and three other MAbs known to bind to mammalian lamins. In immunofluorescence assays, pc480 and anti-lamin antibodies stain both cytoplasmic and nuclear antigens in plant cells, with slightly enhanced staining along the periphery of the nuclei. These results indicate that the pea and rat liver NTPases are structurally similar and that, in pea nuclei as in rat liver nuclei, the major NTPase is probably derived from a lamin precursor by proteolysis.
Absorption of pyrimidines, purines, and nucleosides by copper, nickel, cobalt, and iron montmorillonite
Absorption of purines, pyrimidines, and nucleoside in aqueous solution by montmorillionite occurring as cation exchange reaction
Nucleoside synthesis under potentially prebiotic conditions
Purines, pyrimidines and nucleosides absorption by Li-, Na-, Mg- and Ca-montmorillonite in aqueous solutions over range pH 2-12 by cation exchange
Absorption of nucleosides, purine and pyrimidine derivatives by Co-, Cu- and Ni-montmorillonite taking place by cation exchange process