The stability of the RNA bases: Implications for the origin of life

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dc.creatorLevy, Matthew
dc.creatorMiller, Stanley L.
dc.date1998-07-07
dc.date.accessioned2026-08-02T20:20:07Z
dc.descriptionHigh-temperature origin-of-life theories require that the components of the first genetic material are stable. We therefore have measured the half-lives for the decomposition of the nucleobases. They have been found to be short on the geologic time scale. At 100°C, the growth temperatures of the hyperthermophiles, the half-lives are too short to allow for the adequate accumulation of these compounds (t(1/2) for A and G ≈ 1 yr; U = 12 yr; C = 19 days). Therefore, unless the origin of life took place extremely rapidly (<100 yr), we conclude that a high-temperature origin of life may be possible, but it cannot involve adenine, uracil, guanine, or cytosine. The rates of hydrolysis at 100°C also suggest that an ocean-boiling asteroid impact would reset the prebiotic clock, requiring prebiotic synthetic processes to begin again. At 0°C, A, U, G, and T appear to be sufficiently stable (t(1/2) ≥ 10(6) yr) to be involved in a low-temperature origin of life. However, the lack of stability of cytosine at 0°C (t(1/2) = 17,000 yr) raises the possibility that the GC base pair may not have been used in the first genetic material unless life arose quickly (<10(6) yr) after a sterilization event. A two-letter code or an alternative base pair may have been used instead.
dc.identifierhttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC20907/
dc.identifierhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9653118/
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.95.14.7933
dc.identifier.urihttps://repo.dare.co.zw/handle/123456789/85636
dc.languageen
dc.publisherNational Academy of Sciences
dc.rightsCopyright © 1998, The National Academy of Sciences
dc.sourceProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
dc.subjectBiological Sciences
dc.titleThe stability of the RNA bases: Implications for the origin of life
dc.typeText

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