The stability of the RNA bases: Implications for the origin of life
10.1073/pnas.95.14.7933
Crossref journal-article
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (341)
Abstract

High-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.

Bibliography

Levy, M., & Miller, S. L. (1998). The stability of the RNA bases: Implications for the origin of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95(14), 7933–7938.

Authors 2
  1. Matthew Levy (first)
  2. Stanley L. Miller (additional)
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Dates
Type When
Created 23 years, 1 month ago (July 26, 2002, 10:32 a.m.)
Deposited 3 years, 4 months ago (April 13, 2022, 4:40 p.m.)
Indexed 3 weeks, 4 days ago (Aug. 7, 2025, 4:51 a.m.)
Issued 27 years, 1 month ago (July 7, 1998)
Published 27 years, 1 month ago (July 7, 1998)
Published Online 27 years, 1 month ago (July 7, 1998)
Published Print 27 years, 1 month ago (July 7, 1998)
Funders 0

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@article{Levy_1998, title={The stability of the RNA bases: Implications for the origin of life}, volume={95}, ISSN={1091-6490}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.95.14.7933}, DOI={10.1073/pnas.95.14.7933}, number={14}, journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, publisher={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, author={Levy, Matthew and Miller, Stanley L.}, year={1998}, month=jul, pages={7933–7938} }