Theoretical origin of life: parts of DNA in outer space (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, March 21, 2023, 16:53 (395 days ago) @ David Turell

Asteroid Ryugu contained uracil:

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-discover-rna-component-buried-in-the-dust-of-an...

"A sample extracted from an asteroid far from Earth has confirmed that RNA nucleobases can be found in space rocks.

"Analysis of dust ferried home from asteroid Ryugu has been found to contain uracil – one of the four nucleobases that make up RNA – in addition to niacin, a form of the vitamin B3, which plays an important role in metabolism.

"This adds to a growing body of evidence that the building blocks for life form in space, and may have been at least partially delivered to Earth by asteroid bombardment early in our planet's history.

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"As we are increasingly discovering, the building blocks for life out there are plentiful. They've been spotted in planet-forming dust, and in the clouds of star-forming dust that shroud the heart of our galaxy. And they've been found in multiple meteorites that have penetrated Earth's atmosphere and fallen to ground.

***

"The team took the two samples, obtained from different locations on the asteroid, soaked them in hot water, and subjected them to high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry. This technique, when employed on the Murchison meteorite that fell to Earth in 1969, yielded all five canonical nucleobases.

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"'We found uracil in the samples in small amounts, in the range of 6–32 parts per billion (ppb), while vitamin B3 was more abundant, in the range of 49–99 ppb," Oba says. "Other biological molecules were found in the sample as well, including a selection of amino acids, amines and carboxylic acids, which are found in proteins and metabolism, respectively.'"

Comment: The report ignores chirality as usual. All amino acids in life are in 3-D lefthanded. Naturally formed amino acids will be 50/50 left and right. Just having amino acids lying around does not tell us how they jumped into forming living organisms.