Scientists from an international research group at NASA discovered cytosine and thymine in samples from meteorites.
DNA and RNA molecules encode information withusing five "information" components - nucleotides. Three of them - adenine, guanine and cytosine - are part of both molecules, thymine is only part of DNA, and uracil is RNA. Previously, researchers have found adenine, guanine and uracil in meteorites.
Scientists believe that the difficulty in finding cytosineand thymine was caused by the finer structure of these elements and the "rough" influence on the part of the researchers: in previous experiments, scientists dissolved meteorites in hot formic acid and analyzed the composition of the resulting "broth".
In the new work, biochemists used instead ofhot acid cool water. In addition, the researchers said they were using more sensitive analytical methods that responded to even small amounts of the right molecules.
“Now we have proof thatthe full range of nitrogenous bases used in living cells today could have been available on Earth when life first began,” said Danny Glavin, co-author of the paper at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.
According to NASA, this discovery does notan unambiguous answer to the question of whether life on Earth arose independently from the primordial soup or molecules brought from space helped it. But, according to the agency, the confirmation that all the necessary nitrogenous bases, like other previously found organic molecules, could come from space, opens up new experiments for scientists studying the origin of life.
Cover image: NASA Goddard/CI Lab/Dan Gallagher
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