Prebiotic synthesis of orotic acid parallel to the biosynthetic pathway.
By heating an aqueous solution of aspartic acid and urea, carbamylaspartic acid is first formed and then the molecule is cyclized to dihydroorotic acid (DHO) with loss of water. Irradiation of an aqueous solution of DHO with a tungsten lamp yields orotic acid by photo-dehydrogenation of the molecule. This pathway of orotic acid formation is quite similar to that of biosynthesis of the molecule.
Yamagata
Y
Y
Department of Physics, Kanazawa University, Japan.
Sasaki
K
K
Takaoka
O
O
Sano
S
S
Inomata
K
K
Kanemitsu
K
K
Inoue
Y
Y
Matsumoto
I
I
D001224:Aspartic Acid; D007700:Kinetics; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009963:Orotic Acid / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000378:metabolism; D014508:Urea
D001224:Aspartic Acid; D009963:Orotic Acid; D014508:Urea