Figure 4.

RNA degradation. Incubations of the RNA‐containing oligonucleotide at pH 3.2–9 and 0–50 mM of prebiotically relevant metal. Enhanced RNA hydrolysis occurs in nearly all pH conditions. At pH 3.2, increasing concentrations of metals decrease the rate of RNA degradation. Between pH 5.4 and 8, RNA incubations containing Mg2+ are generally more stable than those containing Fe2+ or Mn2+. At pH 9, we record the most rapid metal‐catalyzed hydrolysis rates in our experiments. Precipitates were observed for both Fe2+ and Mn2+ incubations likely resulting in artificially decreased catalysis rates relative to Mg2+. Error bars represent SEM (n = 2)