Possible options
DNA is just one of a million possible genetic molecules
Scientists have found more than a million possible molecular carriers of genetic information in addition to DNA and RNA. The discovery will help in the development of new drugs and the search for extraterrestrial life. The results are published in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (Cleaves, II et al., One Among Millions: The Chemical Space of Nucleic Acid-Like Molecules).
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecular structure that provides storage, transmission from generation to generation and the implementation of a genetic program for the development and functioning of living organisms.
Some scientists believe that life on Earth could not have existed before the appearance of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), since all hereditary information is encoded with the help of these macromolecules.
Scientists from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Emory University (USA) and the German Aerospace Center decided to find out whether nucleic acids are the only possible form of storage of hereditary molecular information or their role could be played by other polymer molecular structures similar to nucleic acid.
Using sophisticated computational methods, they conducted a simulation of possible analogues of nucleic acids, which in a different scenario of development on our or other planets could take on the role of carriers of genetic information. To the surprise of scientists, they found more than a million possible variants of macromolecules within the formulas BC 3-7 H 5-15 O 2-4 and BC 3-6 H 5-15 N 1-2 O 0-4, where B is a recognition element, for example, a nucleic base. In total, there are 706,568 variants of the VSNO and 454,422 VSNO type compounds.
"There are two types of nucleic acids in biology, and maybe 20 or 30 effective analogues binding to them. We wanted to see if there was at least one more. It turned out that there are much, much more of them than expected," the press release says. Tokyo Institute of Technology, the words of the first author of the study, James Cleaves (Henderson James Cleaves, II).
Scientists have discovered a whole universe of theoretically possible compounds that, after additional modification, can become the basis for the development of a new generation of drugs.
Synthetic molecules that mimic nucleic acids form the basis of many methods of treating viral diseases. Viruses also use nucleic acids to store their hereditary information, although some viruses use a shortened version of DNA– RNA. Destroying the heredity of an organism or virus is a great way to destroy it.
Nucleotides, the building blocks of which DNA consists, can selectively affect HIV, herpes, viral hepatitis viruses and many others. Most of the important antiviral drugs used today, as well as cancer drugs, are nucleotide analogues of DNA.
The study is also interesting from the point of view of the search for life on other planets. Since most scientists believe that the basis of biology is hereditary information, scientists are looking for compounds on other planets that could fulfill the role played by RNA and DNA on Earth.
One of the authors of the study, Jay Goodwin from Emory University, says: "It is interesting to consider the potential of alternative genetic systems based on similar nucleosides that could arise and develop in different environments, perhaps even on other planets."
The scientists plan to try to create some of the theoretically modeled polymer molecules already in the laboratory at the next stage of the work.
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