How sugar from outer space may have helped build life on Earth; study finds ribose kept boron dissolved in early waters

A simple sugar delivered to the young Earth by meteorites may have played a more complicated role in the emergence of life than scientists once thought. Ribose, a five-carbon sugar, is best known today as the sugar that forms part of RNA, one of biology’s most important molecules. But ribose is chemically fragile and can break down relatively easily, creating a problem for theories about how it could have survived long enough to participate in prebiotic chemistry. A new study, ‘The influence of ribose on borate mineral solubility,’ published in Scientific Reports, has now identified a possible two-way relationship between ribose and borate minerals. The researchers found that ribose can increase the amount of borate that dissolves in water, while borate can bind with ribose and help protect it from degradation.Ribose was important, but difficult to preserveThe significance of ribose comes from its connection to RNA.