Amino-containing four-carbon threose nucleic acids (TNAs) have long been considered to be prebiotically irrelevant due to their difficult formation. Now, a prebiotically plausible route to 3′-amino-TNA nucleoside triphosphate has been developed, raising the possibility of 3′-amino-TNA as a non-canonical nucleic acid during the origin of life.
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Liu, Y., Wang, Y. Making nucleic acid monomers. Nat. Chem. 14, 725–727 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-00985-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-00985-2
