Synthesis and degradation of nucleic acids components by formamide and cosmic dust analogues.

We show the unprecedented one-pot synthesis of a large suite of pyrimidines (including cytosine and uracil) and purines from formomide in the presence of cosmic-dust analogues (CDAs) of olivines. Since the major problem in the origin of informational macromolecules is the instability of their precursors, we also investigate the stabilizing effect of CDAs on the intrinsic instability of oligonucleotides in formamide.