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Updated: Jul 31, 2026

Free Radicals in Chemical Biology: from Chemical Behavior to Biomarker Development
Published on: April 15, 2013
Fate of prebiotic adenine
C A Cohn1, T K Hansson, H S Larsson
1Department of Geology and Geochemistry, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract:
Equilibrium adsorption isotherm data for the purine base adenine has been obtained on several prebiotically relevant minerals by frontal analysis using water as a mobile phase. Adenine is far displaced toward adsorption on pyrite (FeS2), quartz (SiO2), and pyrrhotite (FeS), but somewhat less for magnetite (Fe3O4) and forsterite (Mg2SiO4). The prebiotic prevalence of these minerals would have allowed them to act as a sink for adenine; removal from the aqueous phase would confer protection from hydrolysis as well, establishing a nonequilibrium thermodynamic framework for increased adenine synthesis. Our results provide evidence that adsorption phenomena may have been critical for the primordial genetic architecture.
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