http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080613/sc_afp/spacesciencebiochemistrybiology_080613180404
Genetic material from outer space found in a meteorite in Australia
may well have played a key role in the origin of life on Earth,
according to a study to be published Sunday.
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European and US scientists have proved for the first time that two
bits of genetic coding, called nucleobases, contained in the meteor
fragment, are truly extraterrestrial.
Previous studies had suggested that the space rocks, which hit Earth
some 40 years ago, might have been contaminated upon impact.
Both of the molecules identified, uracil and xanthine, "are present in
our DNA and RNA," said lead author Zita Martins, a researcher at
Imperial College London.
RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is another key part of the genetic coding
that makes up our bodies.
These molecules would also have been essential to the still-mysterious
alchemy that somehow gave rise, some four billion years ago, to life
itself.
"We know that meteorites very similar to the Murchison meteorite,
which is the one we analysed, were delivering the building blocks of
life to Earth 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago," Martins told AFP in an
interview.
Competing theories suggest that nucleobases were synthesised closer to
home, but Martins counters that the atmospheric conditions of early
Earth would have rendered that process difficult or impossible.
A team of European and US scientists showed that the two types of
molecules in the Australian meteorite contained a heavy form of carbon
-- carbon 13 -- which could only have been formed in space.
"We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoric
fragments for use in genetic coding, enabling them to pass on their
successful features to subsequent generations," Martins said.
If so, this would have been the start of an evolutionary process
leading over billions of years to all the flora and fauna -- including
human beings -- in existence today.
The study, published in Earth Planetary Science Letters, also has
implications for life on other planets.
"Because meteorities represent leftover materials from the formation
of the solar system, the key components of life -- including
nucleobases -- could be widespread in the cosmos," said co-author Mark
Sephton, also at Imperial College London.
"As more and more of life's raw materials are discovered in objects
from space, the possibility of life springing forth wherever the right
chemistry is present becomes more likely," he said.
Uracil is an organic compound found in RNA, where it binds in a
genetic base pair with another molecule, adenine.
Xanthine is not directly part of RNA or DNA, but participates in a
series of chemical reactions inside the RNA of cells.
The two types of nucleobases and the ratio of light-to-heavy carbon
molecules were identified through gas chromatography and mass
spectrometry, technologies that were not available during earlier
analyses of the now-famous meteorite.
Even so, said Martins, the process was extremely laborious and time-
consuming, one reason it had not be carried out up to now by other
scientists.
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