Summary
the co-condensation of guanosine- and cytidine-5′-phospho-2-methylimidazolide on various oligodeoxynucleotides containing C and G has been studied. We find that GC7 is an effective template for the incorporation of C into products of the form GnC, whereas C7G does not act as a template for C incorporation. The template C3GC3GC3GC3 directs the synthesis of complementary products, but the yield of long oligomers is very small. Templates in which G residues are contiguous or separated by a single C residue are ineffective, while templates containing the sequence GCCG are very inefficient. The significance of these findings in the context of prebiotic chemistry is discussed.
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Abbreviations
- 2-MeImpC:
-
cytidine-5′-phospho-2-methylimidazolide
- 2-MeImpG:
-
guanosine-5′-phospho-2-methylimidazolide
- pC:
-
cytidine-5′-monophosphoric acid; poly(C), polycytidylic acid
- GnC:
-
an oligonucleotide with composition GnC and terminated by a 5′-phosphate
- (pG)ipC(pG)j :
-
an oligonucleotide with the sequence GiCGj and terminated by a 5′-phosphate
- HPLC:
-
high-pressure liquid chromatography
- UV:
-
ultraviolet light
References
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Haertle, T., Orgel, L.E. The template properties of some oligodeoxynucleotides containing cytidine and guanosine. J Mol Evol 23, 108–112 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02099904
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02099904