Researchers from the University College London has found out the answer that how nucleotides were formed in the early earth, before the beginning of life. Nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA or RNA. Without nucleotides, DNA or RNA formation is not possible.
According to Phys.org, a single chemical mechanism has been suggested by a team of researchers in which both the classes of nucleotides, that is, purines and pyrimidine might have a formation altogether. It is very well known that nucleotides, a basic for RNA formation, are very important and essential to all life forms on the Earth. Without the basic element, nucleotides, life forms cannot be even imagined. For understanding the life forms origins, it is needed to understand the origin of nucleotide formation leading to RNA formation.
If the scientists are able to understand the origins of RNA formation or nucleotides, then it will be very easier to understand the origins of life. Before the study, it was assumed by the scientists that both the classes of nucleotides, i.e. purines and pyrimidine must have formed separately. The conditions must have been manually incompatible.
This is the first study, which shows that the previous theory about the nucleotides involved in RNA formation is false, and both the classes of nucleotides were formed from a common molecule which used to exist before the life began. University College London reported that the research paper was published in the journal Nature Communications.
The research for the RNA formation was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Simons Foundation and the Origins of Life Challenge. Apart from the researchers of UCL, other scientists from the Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital were also involved in the study. The molecules which have been discovered in the study, responsible for forming both the classes of nucleotides, are 8-oxo-adenosine and 8-oxo-inosine.