Synthesis of Nucleic Acid Bases by Metal Ferrite Nanoparticles from a Single Carbon Atom Precursor Molecule: Formamide.

The synthesis of prebiotic molecules from simple precursors is believed to be a crucial scheme in order to study the origin of life processes. The present study describes the one-pot synthesis of purine and pyrimidine nucleic acid bases in the presence of pre-biologically significant binary metal oxide nanoparticles, metal ferrites, namely NiFe₂O₄, CoFe₂O₄, CuFe₂O₄, ZnFe₂O₄ and MnFe₂O₄. The products identified are cytosine, isocytosine, 4(3H)-pyrimidinone, adenine, hypoxanthine and purine. The ability of isocytosine (a constitutional isomer of cytosine) to recognize cytosine and guanine through normal and reversed Watson-Crick pairing respectively, demonstrates an important storyline for the genesis of ancient nucleic acids. The relevance of other synthesized nucleic acid bases with respect to the origin of life is also discussed. The divalent metal ions in iron oxide make it an appropriate catalytic system because it demonstrates excellent catalytic performance for the nucleic acid bases synthesis with significantly high yield, as compared to pure iron oxide and some other minerals like silica, alumina, manganese oxides and double metal cyanide complexes.