Effect of Nucleotides on the Phase and Crystal Structure of Synthetic Calcium Carbonate

The interactions of organic hereditary materials (i.e., DNA and RNA) with inorganic minerals are of key importance in many fields of research, from archeology and paleontology to medicine. It was previously shown that the building blocks of the main structural biomacromolecules, amino acids and monosaccharides, can be incorporated into the crystal lattice of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), the most abundant biomineral. Here, we continue this reductionist approach and study how the mineral host is affected when grown in the presence of mono- or triphosphate nucleotides─the building blocks of nucleic acids. We show that the nucleotides facilitate the stabilization of the amorphous polymorph of CaCO₃, as well as promote the formation of vaterite, its least thermodynamically stable anhydrous crystalline phase. We use high-resolution powder X-ray diffraction, and a variety of chemical analysis tools, to demonstrate the mechanism by which nucleotides become incorporated within the vaterite lattice.