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Separation and characterization of N-heterocyclic organic compounds from
an interstellar mineral matrix
Bredehöft
J.H., Thiemann W.H.-P., Meierhenrich U.J.
Abstract
In the context of the evolution of biologically relevant compounds from
abiotic precursors and conditions, the so called ‚chemical evolution‘, a
novel method for the analysis of N-heterocyclic compounds was developed.
N-heterocycles are of importance in this context due to the fact that the
nucleic acid bases, which encode genetic information in the form of DNA (or
RNA) in biological life as we understand it, are cyclic compounds with cycles
made of carbon and nitrogen.
The groups of organics called pyrimidines and purines are of most interest
here, since each group contributes two compounds to the total of four of the
nucleic acid bases used in DNA. These are adenine and guanine for the purine-bases
and cytosine and thymine for the pyrimidine-bases. So the aim of this publication
is to add another method to the pool of already established methods for analysing
a number of biologically relevant compounds in extraterrestric environments
(eg. amino acids, sugars).
In: Perez-Mercader J. (ed.) Exo-Astrobiology, European Space Agency, ESA SP-545; Noordwijk, the Netherlands (2004), 175-176.
Last updated April 2004