Thermal Habitat for RNA Amplification and Accumulation

Salditt, Annalena; Keil, Lorenz M. R.; Horning, David P.; Mast, Christof B.; Joyce, Gerald F. und Braun, Dieter (2020): Thermal Habitat for RNA Amplification and Accumulation. In: Physical Review Letters, Bd. 125, Nr. 4, 00319007

Abstract

The RNA world scenario posits replication by RNA polymerases. On early Earth, a geophysical setting is required to separate hybridized strands after their replication and to localize them against diffusion. We present a pointed heat source that drives exponential, RNA-catalyzed amplification of short RNA with high efficiency in a confined chamber. While shorter strands were periodically melted by laminar convection, the temperature gradient caused aggregated polymerase molecules to accumulate, protecting them from degradation in hot regions of the chamber. These findings demonstrate a size-selective pathway for autonomous RNA-based replication in a natural non-equilibrium condition.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• EU Funded Grant Agreement Number: 787356
• EU-Projekte: Horizon 2020 > ERC Grants > ERC Advanced Grant > ERC Grant 787356: EvoTrap - Mechanisms to emerge and replicate the first sequence information of life in geothermal microfluidics of early Earth
• Fakultät: Physik
• Fakultätsübergreifende Einrichtungen: Center for NanoScience (CENS)
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 530 Physik
• Sprache: Englisch