Schwartz A W
Laboratory for Exobiology, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Adv Space Res. 1989;9(6):77-81. doi: 10.1016/0273-1177(89)90211-1.
Recent interest in the properties of "nucleic acid-like structures" has been stimulated by difficulties encountered in the synthesis and nonenzymatic oligomerization of nucleotides. However, none of the newly proposed monomers has yet been synthesized in a plausibly prebiotic manner. Arguments are presented that analogues based on 8-hydroxymethyladenine and 5-hydroxymethyluracil are promising candidates for primitive nucleotide precursors.