... any thymine, but the one neighboring another thymine in the chain.... The result is a new hemical copound called a thymine photodimer." My question is - is this true for URACIL too? Is the uracil in RNA as susceptible to damage by photodimers as Thymine? Tom

..., published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, provides evidence that life's raw materials came from sources beyond the Earth. The materials they have found include the molecules uracil and xanthine, which are precursors to the molecules that make up DNA and RNA, and are known as nucleobases. The team discovered the molecules in rock fragments of the Murchison meteorite...

... 40 years ago, might have been contaminated upon impact. Both of the molecules identified, uracil and xanthine, "are present in our DNA and RNA," said lead author Zita Martins, a researcher ...possibility of life springing forth wherever the right chemistry is present becomes more likely," he said. Uracil is an organic compound found in RNA, where it binds in a genetic base pair with ...

...Earth some 40 years ago, might have been contaminated upon impact. Both of the molecules identified, uracil and xanthine, "are present in our DNA and RNA," said lead author Zita Martins, a researcher... possibility of life springing forth wherever the right chemistry is present becomes more likely," he said. Uracil is an organic compound found in RNA, where it binds in a genetic base pair with...

... phosphoric acid or polyphosphate ester[1,2].Gagik G. Gurzadyan reported the damage to uracil- and adenine-containing bases,nucleosides and nucleotides on irradiation at 193 and 254 nm [...is 100 times the present value [5]. Gurzadyan's results demonstrated that the prebiotic uracil, uridine, 5'-UMP and adenine-containing bases, nucleosides and nucleotides when irradiated at 193 ...

...predicted by calculations. Other experiments hinted at its existence, but this is the first time it has been shown to exist in three of the five bases of the genetic code -- cytosine, thymine and uracil. The detection of this dark state in single bases in solution increases the chances that it may be found in the DNA double helix, said Bern Kohler, associate professor of chemistry at Ohio ...

... have the UV repair mechanisms that surface life does, (and like the other poster said - is it strickly UV repair - that is pyrimidine dimer repair). Also again I ask - are there URACIL dimers - if so does UV often damage tRNA? I've never heard anything about it. Thinking about the chemistry for a minute, rather than the biology, may help. Think of organic chemistry. UV ...

... all the rest have the UV repair mechanisms that surface life does, (and like the other poster said - is it strickly UV repair - that is pyrimidine dimer repair). Also again I ask - are there URACIL dimers - if so does UV often damage tRNA? I've never heard anything about it. Surfacists - What about eyeless cave creatures? A good analogy would to your hypothesis would be blind ...