Results indicate that a high-temperature origin of life may be possible, but …

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgements
• References
• Figures

Biology Articles » Evolutionary Biology » Origin of Life » The stability of the RNA bases: Implications for the origin of life » Figures

Figures

- The stability of the RNA bases: Implications for the origin of life

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Fig. 1.   pH rate profile for the decomposition of adenine (Upper) and guanine (Lower).

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Fig. 2.   Arrhenius plot for the decomposition of A, U, G, C, and T, pH 7. , data from Garret and Tsau (10). Equations are as follows: log k(A) =  5902/T + 8.15; log k(U) =  7649/T + 11.76; log k(G) =  6330/T + 9.40; log k(C) = 5620/T + 8.69; log k(T) =  7709/T + 11.24.

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Fig. 3.   Arrhenius plot for the decomposition of xanthine, hypoxanthine, and diaminopyrimidine. The Arrhenius equations are as follows: xanthine, log k = 6230/T + 9.42; hypoxanthine, log k =  5270/T + 7.95; and diaminopyrimidine, log k =  5341/T + 7.31.

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Fig. 4.   The biosynthesis of purine nucleoside monophosphates from aminoimidazole carboxamide riboside monophosphate. The present pathways are indicated by solid arrows. The dotted arrow shows a one-step pathway for the synthesis of GMP, instead of the present three-step pathway. A two-step pathway through XMP is also possible. The shorter routes would be expected if GMP, or guanine, was used when the pathways developed.

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Source:  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 95, Issue 14, 7933-7938, July 7, 1998