Common atmospheric chemicals on Mars can spontaneously react to form the building blocks of DNA.
The origin of life is often thought to require a very specific, lucky mix of rare chemicals on early Earth. This study verified a simple pathway where benzene and hydrogen cyanide react to create the precursors for RNA and DNA. These chemicals are abundant on the Martian surface and in the atmosphere of other planets. It means the starter kit for life is likely much more common in the universe than we previously believed. If the building blocks form this easily, the chances of finding life on Mars or other moons go up significantly.
Novel Chemical Pathways for the Formation of Nucleobase Precursors via Benzene π-Bond Addition to HCN
arXiv · 2605.00035
We propose a simple and efficient pathway for the formation of precursors to core nucleobases in DNA and RNA using a suite of computational chemistry methods. Benzene, which is thermochemically stable in N2- or CO2-dominated atmospheres, could have formed via upper-atmospheric photochemistry or surface lightning and accumulated on the early Earth or Mars. However, nitrogen insertion into the benzene ring to form pyrimidine and purine is widely considered to be challenging. We propose that nitrog