title: Emergence of the First Catalytic Oligonucleotides in a Formamide-Based Origin Scenario.
abstract: 50 years after the historical Miller-Urey experiment, the formamide-based scenario is perhaps the most powerful concurrent hypothesis for the origin of life on our planet besides the traditional HCN-based concept. The information accumulated during the last 15 years in this topic is astonishingly growing and nowadays the formamide-based model represents one of the most complete and coherent pathways leading from simple prebiotic precursors up to the first catalytically active RNA molecules. In this work, we overview the major events of this long pathway that have emerged from recent experimental and theoretical studies, mainly concentrating on the mechanistic, methodological, and structural aspects of this research.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 135, 61265, Brno, Czech Republic. judit@ncbr.muni.cz.|CEITEC - Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Campus Bohunice, Kamenice 5, 62500, Brno, Czech Republic. judit@ncbr.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Judit E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Šponer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 135, 61265, Brno, Czech Republic.|CEITEC - Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Campus Bohunice, Kamenice 5, 62500, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Šponer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 135, 61265, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nováková
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 135, 61265, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Viktor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Brabec
authors.affiliation: CEITEC - Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Campus Bohunice, Kamenice 5, 62500, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ondrej
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Šedo
authors.affiliation: CEITEC - Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Campus Bohunice, Kamenice 5, 62500, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Zbyněk
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zdráhal
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Biologia e Patologia Molecolari, CNR, P.le Aldo Moro, 5, Rome, 00185, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Costanzo
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "Charles Darwin", "Sapienza" Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, Rome, 00185, Italy.
authors.forename: Samanta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pino
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Ecologiche e Biologiche, Università della Tuscia, Via San Camillo De Lellis, 01100, Viterbo, Italy.
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saladino
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "Charles Darwin", "Sapienza" Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, Rome, 00185, Italy.
authors.forename: Ernesto
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Di Mauro
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D005559:Formamides / Q000737:chemistry*; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D000069497:Origin of Life; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005559:Formamides; D009841:Oligonucleotides; D012313:RNA
keywords: RNA; formamide; nucleobases; nucleotides; origin of life