title: Formation of supramolecular assemblies and liquid crystals by purine nucleobases and cyanuric acid in water: implications for the possible origins of RNA.
abstract: The free nucleobases and mononucleotides of RNA do not form Watson-Crick base pairs in water, a fact that presents several challenges for the prebiotic synthesis of RNA. 2,6-Diaminopurine and adenosine-5'-monophosphate (AMP) are shown to form supramolecular assemblies with cyanuric acid in water. These assemblies and their propensity to form liquid crystals suggest a possible means by which non-covalent structures might have originally selected the shape of the Watson-Crick base pairs.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. hud@chemistry.gatech.edu and State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, P. R. China.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. hud@chemistry.gatech.edu.
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Cafferty
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. hud@chemistry.gatech.edu.
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Karunakaran
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. hud@chemistry.gatech.edu.
authors.forename: G B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Schuster
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. hud@chemistry.gatech.edu.
authors.forename: N V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Hud