Boreskov

PP‐36FORMATION OF NUCLEOBASES FROM FORMAMIDE IN THE PRESENCEOF IRON OXIDESUma Shanker*, Kamaluddin and G. BhattcharjeeDepartment of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,Roorkee ‐247667(U.K.) India, *umaorganic29@gmail.comIron oxide hydroxide minerals, goethite and akaganeite were the probable constituentsof the sediments present in the geothermal region of the primitive Earth. They might haveadsorbed a variety of organics ontheir surface and catalyzed the condensation processeswhich led to the origin of life. The binding and reactions of nucleotides and polynucleotideson iron oxide hydroxide polymorphs has been studied (Holms etal., 1993). Formation of ‐FeOOH in sterile sea water or brine, like in the deeps of the Red Sea, has beenobserved(Holms, 1984). Recently the role of hematite on Mars (Arora et al., 2007a) and theinteraction ofzinc oxide with various nucleotides namely, 5' ‐ AMP, 5'‐ GMP, 5'‐ CMP and 5'‐UMP have beeninvestigated (Arora and Kamaluddin, 2007b). Formation of nucleic acid basesand their precursors fromformamide has been found in relatively higher yield by iron inlower oxidation state present in its sulfides(Saladino et al., 2008). Formamide, a hydrolysisproduct of HCN is a well known precursors of variousbiologically important compounds e.g.,nucleobases (purines and pyrimidines and amino acids. We reportour results on thesynthesis of nucleobases, adenine, cytosine, purine, 9‐(hydroxyacetyl) purine and 4(3H)‐pyrimidinone from formamide using iron oxide (hematite) and oxide hydroxides (goethiteand akaganeite) ascatalyst. Goethite and hematite produced purine in higher yield ascompared to akaganeite. The productsformed have been characterized by HPLC and ESI‐MStechniques. Results of our study reveal that ironoxides might have worked as efficientprebiotic catalysts.References[1]. Arora Avnish Kumar and Kamaluddin (2007) Interaction of ribose nucleotides with zinc oxide andrelevance in chemical evolution. Colloids and surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspect. 298:186‐191.[2]. Arora Avnish Kumar, Tomar Varsha, Aarti, Venkateswararao, K.T. and Kamaluddin (2007) Haematite–Water system on Mars and its possible role in chemical evolution. International Journal of Astrobiology 6:267‐271.[3]. Arora Avnish Kumar and Kamaluddin (2009) Role of metal oxides in chemical evolution: Interaction ofAlumina with ribose nucleotides. Astrobiology 9(2):165‐171.[4]. Holm, Nils G. Ertem, G. and Ferris, J. P., (1993) The binding and reactions of nucleotide and polynucleotide[5]. on iron oxide hydroxide polymorphs. Origin of life and Evolution of Biosphere 23: 195‐215.[6]. Holm, Nils G. (1984) The Structure of ‐ FeOOH.Cln (Akaganeite) and its uptake of amino acid. Origin ofLife and Evolution of Biosphere 14:343‐350.[7]. Saladino, R., Neri, V., Crestini, C., Costanzo, G., Graciotti, M., Di Mauro, E. (2008) Synthesis andDegradation of Nucleic Acid Components by Formamide and Iron Sulfur Minerals. J. Am. Chem. Soc.130(46): 15512‐15518.198