The Origins of Life the hypothesis known as the RNA World is based on the premise that RNA was present on Earth before proteins and DNA. One of the issues with this theory is the instability of RNA in an aqueous environment, which has led to the use of montmorillonite as a catalyst or scaffold for the assembly of the oligomers of the biological macromolecule. Molecular modeling was used here to explore the effects of the presence of the clay mineral using molecular mechanics implemented by the software package Spartan. A poly-adenosine chain was modified by replacing ribose with simpler sugars that have been shown to be more likely to be present in primordial conditions. The model was used to study both the periodicity of the structure of the clay mineral, to determine matching features in the exposed montmorillonite surface, and to explore the potential for bonding to occur between the chain and the surface through specific complexes.

Catalysis by montmorillonite on the synthesis of biological RNA polymer surrogates

254th National Meeting (2017)

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