The Formation of RNA Pre-Polymers in the Presence of Different Prebiotic Mineral Surfaces Studied by Molecular Dynamics Simulations

We used all-atom Molecular Dynamics (MD) computer simulations to study the formation of pre-polymers between the four nucleotides in RNA (AMP, UMP, CMP, GMP) in the presence of different substrates that could have been present in a prebiotic environment. Pre-polymers are C3'-C5' hydrogen-bonded nucleotides that have been suggested to be the precursors of phosphodiester-bonded RNA polymers. We simulated wet-dry cycles by successively removing …