Studies of nucleic acid-like polymers as catalysts

✍ Scribed by Marie-Christine Maurel; Jean-Luc Décout

• Book ID: 104652786
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 452 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-2844
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00178594

✦ Synopsis

An important issue in the problem of the origins of life is whether or not nucleic acids may exert catalytic activities. In order to study the possible role of the adenine ring in catalysis, we have synthesized polymers containing aliphatic amino groups and the nucleic base adenine linked to macromolecules by its 6-amino group. These polymers exhibit pronounced catalytic activities in the hydrolysis ofp-nitrophenylacetate. In mild basic conditions, the strong increase in the activities observed can be related to a cooperative effect between the amino groups and the adenine rings of the polymers. These properties and our previous results on the catalytic activity of N6-ribosyl-adenine are consistent with a possible role for the adenine ring in prebiotic catalysis.