University of Hawaii scientists analyzing a Martian meteorite have found a chemical necessary for the formation of genetic material.

The chemical, boron, in its oxidized form, borate, is required for the development of ribonucleic acid, or RNA, one of the building blocks of life.

On Earth, borate- enriched salt, sediment and clay deposits are relatively common, but such deposits had never previously been found on an extraterrestrial body. The new research suggests that when life was getting started on Earth, borate also could have been concentrated in deposits on Mars.

“Borates may have been important for the origin of life on Earth because they can stabilize ribose, a crucial component of RNA,” James Stephenson, a postdoctoral fellow at the UH NASA Astrobiology Institute, said in a statement last week. “In early life RNA is thought to have been the informational precursor to DNA.”

A program called the Antarctic Search for Meteorites found the rock during the 2009-10 survey season, according to UH. It is believed to have been ejected from Mars eons ago by an impact from a comet or meteor.

Martian meteorites have a chemical composition that distinguishes them from other space rocks.

Veins of clay in the rock in question were analyzed using the ion microprobe at the W.M. Keck Cosmochemistry Laboratory at UH. After ruling out contamination from Earth, the researchers determined boron abundances in the clays are more than 10 times higher than in any previously measured meteorite.

Said co-researcher Lydia Hallis, a UH cosmochemist, “Earth and Mars used to have much more in common than they do today. Over time, Mars has lost a lot of its atmosphere and surface water, but ancient meteorites preserve delicate clays from wetter periods in Mars’ history. The Martian clay we studied is thought to be up to 700 million years old. The recycling of the earth’s crust via plate tectonics has left no evidence of clays this old on our planet; hence Martian clays could provide essential information regarding environmental conditions on the early Earth.”

Their findings appeared in the June 6 issue of PLOS One.