Understanding the prebiotic genesis of 2-deoxy-D-ribose, which forms the backbone of DNA, is of crucial importance to unravelling the origins of life, yet remains open to debate. Here we demonstrate that 20 mol% of proteinogenic amino esters promote the selective formation of 2-deoxy-D-ribose over 2-deoxy-D-threopentose in combined yields of ≥4%. We also demonstrate the first aldol reaction promoted by prebiotically-relevant proteinogenic amino nitriles (20 mol%) for the enantioselective synthesis of D-glyceraldehyde with 6% ee, and its subsequent conversion into 2-deoxy-D-ribose in yields of ≥ 5%. Finally, we explore the combination of these two steps in a one-pot process using 20 mol% of an amino ester or amino nitrile promoter. It is hence demonstrated that three interstellar starting materials, when mixed together with an appropriate promoter, can directly lead to the formation of a mixture of higher carbohydrates, including 2-deoxy-D-ribose.

中文翻译：

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由氨基酯或氨基腈促进的星际构件从益生元合成2-脱氧-D-核糖

了解形成DNA骨架的2-脱氧-D-核糖的益生元起源对于阐明生命起源至关重要，但仍需争论。在这里，我们证明了20 mol％的蛋白原性氨基酯比2-脱氧-D-苏糖戊糖促进2-脱氧-D-核糖的选择性形成，总产率≥4％。我们还证明了益生元相关蛋白原氨基腈（20 mol％）促进的第一个羟醛反应，用于对映体合成具有6％ee的D-甘油醛，随后转化为2-deoxy- D-核糖，产率≥5％。最后，我们在使用20 mol％的氨基酯或氨基腈促进剂的一锅法中探索了这两个步骤的组合。因此证明了三种星际起始物质，当与适当的促进剂混合在一起时，可以直接导致包括2-脱氧-D-核糖的高级碳水化合物的混合物的形成。