Spontaneous Structure Formation in the Products of UV-Initiated Formose Reaction in De-Novo Model

Abstract

The structure formation in xerogels of aqueous solutions of products of the UV-initiated formose reaction has been studied in the context of the problem of the spontaneous formation of prebiological structures. Of the 11 variants of xerogels, only in the talopyranose xerogel show the presence of anisometric strings with distinct periodic (in particular, helical) structure, which form characteristic elements of biomimetic structures by interlacing. Under the conditions simulating the primitive Earth’s atmosphere (formaldehyde, water, UV), spontaneous formation of anisometric superhelical structures has been modeled and the type of the sugars forming these structures has been identified.