Synthesis of purines under possible primitive earth conditions. I. Adenine from hydrogen cyanide

https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-9861(61)90033-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Adenine has been synthesized in substatial amounts by heating a solution of hydrogen cyanide (1 to 15 M) in aqueous ammonia for one or several days at moderate temperatures (27 ° to 100 °). The insoluble black polymer of hydrogen cyanide was removed by centrifugation and adenine was isolated from the red-brown supernatant by chromatographic methods. The main ultraviolet absorbing compound of the reaction product was identified as adenine by eight different procedures, among which, ultraviolet spectrophotometry, melting point of its picrate, and the specific method of Gerlach and Döring were used. From a 11.1 M hydrogen cyanide reaction mixture, at 70 °, a yield of 110 mg. of adenine per liter of original reaction mixture was obtained, which could be increased to 685 mg. by evaporation of the supernatant to dryness on the steam bath and subsequent treatment of the residue with hydrochloric acid.

Since adenine is an essential building block of nucleic acids and of the most important coenzymes, and since hydrogen cyanide, ammonia and water are common natural constituents of the solar system, these experiments are considered of significance in relation to the problem of the origin of life. In particular, the experiments provide the first demonstration of the spontaneous synthesis of adenine from simple compounds of carbon and nitrogen under conditions presumed to have existed on the primitive earth.

References (45)

  • S.L. Miller

    Biochim. et Biophys. Acta

    (1957)
  • S.L. Miller
  • J. Oró et al.

    Arch. Biochem. Biophys

    (1959)
  • B.Y. Levin
  • J. Oró et al.

    Arch. Biochem. Biophys

    (1961)
  • J. Oró

    Biochem. Biophys. Research Communs

    (1960)
  • E. Vischer et al.

    J. Biol. Chem

    (1947)
  • E. Shaw

    J. Biol. Chem

    (1950)
  • S.L. Miller

    J. Am. Chem. Soc

    (1955)
  • S.L. Miller

    Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci

    (1957)
  • J. Oró
  • J. Oró et al.

    Nature

    (1961)
  • S.L. Miller et al.

    Science

    (1959)
  • S.W. Fox

    Science

    (1960)
  • A.I. Oparin

    The Origin of Life on the Earth

    (1957)
  • H. Urey
  • J. Oró

    Nature

    (1961)
  • J. Oró et al.

    Nature

    (1960)
  • J. Oró
  • A.A. Schilt

    Anal. Chem

    (1958)
  • T. Völker

    Angew. Chem

    (1960)
  • G. Bruhns et al.

    Z. physiol. Chem

    (1892)
  • Cited by (0)

    This work was supported in part by research grant No. G-13117 from the National Science Foundation.

    2

    National Science Foundation Graduate Co-operative Fellow for 1960–1961

    View full text