Complexes of ribose with silicates, borates, and calcium: Implications to Astrobiology

摘要

Ribose readily makes complexes with borates, silicates, and calcium. Borate and silicate complexes stabilize and preserve ribose under simulated prebiotic conditions. We report here the C-13 NMR study of the ribose calcium complexes. Calcium ions form complex with the beta-furanose form of ribose, which is biologically relevant, in the following way. The C-2 and C-3 hydroxyl groups get involved in making the complex, while the C-1 OH remains uninvolved. This allows the C-1 OH, which is the most reactive, anomeric hydroxyl, to react further to make prebiotic nucleosides. Thus, the complexation of calcium with ribose may be responsible for the selection of the beta-furanose form in biology.