The role of minerals in formamide prebiotic chemistry

Different chemical-physical mechanisms, such as surface catalysis by minerals, are responsible for the richness of molecules observed in space. However, the understanding of the synthetic routes that have led to the formation of the biomolecules, as well as the possibility to obtain molecules with a high content of structural complexity, requires the development of appropriate experimental models. Syntheses of organic molecules have been performed in laboratory following different strategies in conditions simulating the environments found on the early Earth and in space. The prebiotic chemistry of formamide, the simplest amide in nature, affords in a single and simple physical-chemical frame nucleic bases, acyclonucleosides, nucleotides, biogenic carboxylic acids, sugars, amino sugars, aminoacids and condensing agents, suggesting the possibility that it could have jointly provided the main components for the onset of both (pre)genetic and (pre)metabolic processes [1-3]. In this communication, the results on the role played by terrestrial and non-terrestrial minerals on prebiotic chemistry of formamide will be described. Noteworthy, under both thermal and photochemical conditions several intermediates of the metabolic and genetic apparatus can be synthesized, highlighting the ability for these systems to provide the molecular basis for the origin of life.