Self-organisation of RNA in lipid multilayers
RNA displays a diversity of properties, which are now being developed for medical applications. A significant limitation to progress is that RNA can only be synthesized in small quantities using specific enzymes and costly substrates. A recent discovery is that guided polymerization in an anhydrous lipid environment can promote a non-enzymatic reaction in which oligomers of single stranded ribonucleic acids are synthesized from ordinary mononucleotides such as AMP. The observation is also highly relevant for origin of Life studies of how nucleic acids first assembled and then were incorporated into the earliest forms of cellular life. The presence of multilamellar phospholipids as an organizing matrix markedly enhanced the yield of polymeric products, presumably because the matrix serves to concentrate and organize the mononucleotides as well as allowing a degree of diffusional mobility required for extensive polymerization. The proposal is to characterize AMP/phospholipid multilamellar dynamics on IN5 and IN16B with the aim of furthering our understanding of the RNA polymerization process. The work is part of Laura Da Silva's PhD.
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MAUREL Marie Christine; DA SILVA Laura; DEAMER David; GOLUB Maksym; MISURACA Loreto; NATALI Francesca; OLLIVIER Jacques; PETERS Judith; SEYDEL Tilo and ZACCAI Joseph. (2015). Self-organisation of RNA in lipid multilayers. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.8-04-755
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