Prebiotic synthesis of nucleic acids and their building blocks at the atomic level - merging models and mechanisms from advanced computations and experiments

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Authors

ŠPONEROVÁ Judit SZABLA Rafal Kazimierz GORA Robert W. SAITTA A. Marco PIETRUCCI Fabio SAIJA Franz DI MAURO Ernesto SALADINO Raffaele FERUS Martin CIVIŠ Svatopluk ŠPONER Jiří

Year of publication 2016
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
MU Faculty or unit

Central European Institute of Technology

Citation
Web http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2016/cp/c6cp00670a
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c6cp00670a
Field Physical chemistry and theoretical chemistry
Keywords EXCITED-STATE DYNAMICS; DRIVEN PROTON-TRANSFER; HIGH-POWER LASER; INDUCED DIELECTRIC-BREAKDOWN; TEMPLATE-DIRECTED SYNTHESIS; CLASSICAL DRUDE OSCILLATOR; DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL THEORY; POLARIZABLE FORCE-FIELD; SIGMA-ASTERISK STATES; HIGH-ENERGY CHEMISTRY
Description The origin of life on Earth is one of the most fascinating questions of contemporary science. Extensive research in the past decades furnished diverse experimental proposals for the emergence of first informational polymers that could form the basis of the early terrestrial life. Side by side with the experiments, the fast development of modern computational chemistry methods during the last 20 years facilitated the use of in silico modelling tools to complement the experiments. Modern computations can provide unique atomic-level insights into the structural and electronic aspects as well as the energetics of key prebiotic chemical reactions. Many of these insights are not directly obtainable from the experimental techniques and the computations are thus becoming indispensable for proper interpretation of many experiments and for qualified predictions. This review illustrates the synergy between experiment and theory in the origin of life research focusing on the prebiotic synthesis of various nucleic acid building blocks and on the self-assembly of nucleotides leading to the first functional oligonucleotides.
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