Solvent viscosity facilitates replication and ribozyme catalysis from an RNA duplex in a model prebiotic process
Solvent viscosity facilitates replication and ribozyme catalysis from an RNA duplex in a model prebiotic process
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DOI：
10.1093/nar/gkz496
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发表时间：
2019-07-26
影响因子：
14.9
通讯作者：
Hud, Nicholas V.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
He, Christine;Lozoya-Colinas, Adriana;Hud, Nicholas V.
RNA世界假说认为，RNA曾经负责遗传信息的储存和催化。然而，在聚合酶核酶出现之前，双工RNA复制的益生元机制尚未被报道。在此之前，我们证明了一种粘性溶剂能够从一条长RNA双工模板链中传递信息，从而克服了“链抑制问题”。在这里，我们演示了相同的方法允许从长双工模板的两条链同时传输信息。RNA世界面临的另一个挑战是，结构化RNA（如那些具有催化活性的RNA）在模型益生元RNA合成反应中作为模板的功能很差，这就提出了一个问题，即单个序列如何同时充当催化剂和复制模板。在这里，我们证明了粘性溶剂也促进了新合成的锤头核酶序列从非活性的双相状态到活性的折叠状态的转变。这些结果表明，波动的环境条件如何允许核酶序列在作为复制模板和作为催化剂之间交替，并说明了暂时变化的环境可能使生命起源所必需的分子过程成为可能。
The RNA World hypothesis posits that RNA was once responsible for genetic information storage and catalysis. However, a prebiotic mechanism has yet to be reported for the replication of duplex RNA that could have operated before the emergence of polymerase ribozymes. Previously, we showed that a viscous solvent enables information transfer from one strand of long RNA duplex templates, overcoming 'the strand inhibition problem'. Here, we demonstrate that the same approach allows simultaneous information transfer from both strands of long duplex templates. An additional challenge for the RNA World is that structured RNAs (like those with catalytic activity) function poorly as templates in model prebiotic RNA synthesis reactions, raising the question of how a single sequence could serve as both a catalyst and as a replication template. Here, we show that a viscous solvent also facilitates the transition of a newly synthesized hammerhead ribozyme sequence from its inactive, duplex state to its active, folded state. These results demonstrate how fluctuating environmental conditions can allow a ribozyme sequence to alternate between acting as a template for replication and functioning as a catalyst, and illustrate the potential for temporally changing environments to enable molecular processes necessary for the origin of life.