So far, organic molecules such as amino acids and nucleobases that can be raw materials for life have been found in meteorites.Nucleic acid (RNA and DNA) is a nucleobase to which a sugar molecule (ribose or deoxyribose) is bound and is involved in protein synthesis.However, sugar molecules capable of forming nucleic acids have not been found in extraterrestrial samples containing meteorites.

　The research group detected multiple sugar molecules including ribose from Murchison meteorites and NWA801 meteorites using a proprietary analysis method, and confirmed that these sugar molecules were derived from space by stable carbon isotope composition analysis.Although there are examples of discoveries of sugar molecules that are not closely related to life, we have detected for the first time the sugar molecules that make up the nucleic acids that play a key role in life.

　The detection of sugar molecules in meteorites is a direct proof of the source of new sugar molecules on Earth before the birth of life, and extraterrestrial sugar molecules, along with other life molecules, are part of the material of life. There is a possibility that it became.In addition, it is thought that the early life was not a life with a complicated system in which DNA-protein plays a leading role, but a simple life in which RNA played the role of both DNA and protein quality. It is important to obtain evidence that ribose, which constitutes RNA, is produced in space without the involvement of living organisms, rather than deoxyribose.

　In future research, it will analyze multiple meteorites newly provided by NASA and clarify in detail how much sugar was brought to the earth from outside the earth.

Paper information:[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA] Extraterrestrial ribose and other sugars in primitive meteorites