A Step toward Molecular Evolution of RNA: Ribose Binds to Prebiotic Fatty Acid Membranes, and Nucleosides Bind Better than Individual Bases Do (ChemBioChem, 2020)

• Roy Black
• Sarah Keller

Full Citation:
Xue, M., Black, R. A., Cornell, C. E., Drobny, G. P., & Keller, S. L. (2020). A Step toward Molecular Evolution of RNA: Ribose Binds to Prebiotic Fatty Acid Membranes, and Nucleosides Bind Better than Individual Bases Do. ChemBioChem, 21(19), 2764–2767. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202000260

Abstract:
A major challenge in understanding how biological cells arose on the early Earth is explaining how RNA and membranes originally co-localized. We propose that the building blocks of RNA (nucleobases and ribose) bound to self-assembled prebiotic membranes. We have previously demonstrated that the bases bind to membranes composed of a prebiotic fatty acid, but evidence for the binding of sugars has remained a technical challenge. Here, we use pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance to demonstrate that ribose and other sugars bind to membranes of decanoic acid. Moreover, binding of some bases is strongly enhanced when they are linked to ribose to form a nucleoside or—with the addition of phosphate—a nucleotide. This enhanced binding could have played a role in the molecular evolution leading to the production of RNA.

URL:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32358921/

VPL Research Tasks:
Task D: The Living Planet