Barbituric Acid Closely Resembles Uracil, a Necleobase in RNA (IMAGE)

Georgia Institute of Technology

Barbituric Acid Closely Resembles Uracil, a Necleobase in RNA

Caption

Nearly twins and possibly keys to a unlocking the mystery of the evolution of life-coding molecules. Nicholas Hud holds up Uracil, on the right, a nucleobase of RNA. Barbituric acid, on the left, looks very much like it and could have been part of a proto-RNA that preceded RNA.

Credit

Fitrah Hamid, Georgia Tech

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