Self-organisation of RNA in salty environment
RNA displays a diversity of properties. A 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 anhydrous environments such as lipid multilayers or ammonium chloride salt crystals, 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 ammonium salt environment as an organizing matrix markedly enhanced the yield of polymeric products more than ten-fold over the amounts observed with lipid-enhanced reactions, 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/NH4Cl structures and dynamics on D16 and IN13, IN5, IN16B with the aim of furthering our understanding of the RNA synthesis. The work is part of Laura Da Silva.
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MAUREL Marie Christine; DA SILVA Laura; DEAMER David; DEME Bruno; MISURACA Loreto; NATALI Francesca; OLLIVIER Jacques; PETERS Judith and ZACCAI Joseph. (2015). Self-organisation of RNA in salty environment. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.8-04-756
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