Guanine, Adenine, and Hypoxanthine Production in UV-Irradiated Formamide Solutions: Relaxation of the Requirements for Prebiotic Purine Nucleobase Formation

The RNA-world hypothesis has generated much interest in finding a plausible prebiotic route to RNA. The abiotic synthesis of the purine nucleobases is of particular interest, given proposals that early proto-RNA polymers might have contained only purine nucleobases. Formamide is attractive as a potential prebiotic starting material for the nucleobases; it contains the four required elements (C, H, O, N) and stands out because of its likely prebiotic availability, relative stability, versatile reactivity, and low volatility compared to water.