Novel prebiotic systems: nucleotide oligomerization in surfactant entrapped water pools

Oligomerization of 5′-TMP in water pools entrapped by dodecyl-ammonium chloride surfactant aggregates in benzene: hexane in the presence of dicyanodiimide at temperatures ranging from 21°–72° resulted in the formation of linear and cyclic oligonucleotides containing up to pentamers. Effects of temperature, time and surfactants have been examined. Rate constants for the formation of oligomers have been determined at five different temperatures. These data afforded values of ΔH‡ = 11.8 ± 1.9 Kcal mole−1, ΔS‡=−53α 6 e.u. and ΔG‡ = 27.4α 4.0 Kcal mole−1. Prebiotic significance of these results are discussed.