Direct Assembly of Nucleoside Precursors from Two‐ and Three‐Carbon Units

Sweetness and life: Pentose aminooxazolines—intermediates in potentially prebiotic nucleoside synthesis—can be produced in water from a reaction that bypasses the corresponding sugar. 2-Aminooxazole, a condensation product of glycolaldehyde and cyanamide, reacts with glyceraldehyde under mild conditions in a remarkable process that is essentially quantitative, and is highly stereoselective for ribose and arabinose aminooxazolines. Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under http://www.wiley-vch.de/contents/jc_2002/2006/z601267_s.pdf or from the author. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.