Chérif F. Matta

Thermodynamic Constraints on Glycerol-Based Proto-Nucleotides: Phosphate Versus Arsenate in Early Backbone Evolution.

The view that glycerol-based backbones could have participated in early proto-nucleic-acid chemistry is supported and phosphate may have been selected not because arsenate analogues were thermodynamically unstable, but because phosphate-based backbones were more kinetically persistent and more resistant to hydrolysis t...