Role of clays in the prebiotic synthesis of sugar derivatives from formamide

We describe here the role of montmorillonite KSF in the prebiotic synthesis of amino sugar derivatives starting from a mixture of formamide and formaldehyde as simple chemical precursors. Since amino sugars are key intermediates in the synthesis of complex nucleic acid derivatives, this procedure opens a novel pathway for the formation of nucleosides under plausible primordial conditions.