Synthesis of long prebiotic oligomers on mineral surfaces

@article{Ferris1996SynthesisOL,
  title={Synthesis of long prebiotic oligomers on mineral surfaces},
  author={James P. Ferris and Aubrey R. Hill and Rihe Liu and Leslie E. Orgel},
  journal={Nature},
  year={1996},
  volume={381},
  pages={59-61}
}
MOST theories of the origin of biological organization assume that polymers with lengths in the range of 30–60 monomers are needed to make a genetic system viable1. But it has not proved possible to synthesize plausibly prebiotic polymers this long by condensation in aqueous solution, because hydrolysis competes with polymerization. The potential of mineral surfaces to facilitate prebiotic polymerization was pointed out long ago2. Here we describe a system that models prebiotic polymerization… Expand
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. We thank the Amedcam Colloid Co. for a gift of volclay, the mineral from w41_ch the Na" -mocltmonllonite used in thisstudywas pcepared,and G,/Vrhardus
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