Astrobiologists supported in part by the Exobiology & Evolutionary Biology element of the NASA Astrobiology Program have provided new insight into a process that could have implications for the formation of nucleosides on the early Earth. A nucleoside is a component of genetic material in living cells, and is composed of a nucleobase attached to a sugar.

The study, “Synthesis of orotidine by intramolecular nucleosidation,” was published in the journal Chemical Communications.