Molecular Crowding Facilitates Ribozyme-Catalyzed RNA Assembly.

ABSTRACT: Catalytic RNAs or ribozymes are considered to be central to primordial biology. Most ribozymes require moderate to high concentrations of divalent cations such as Mg²⁺ to fold into their catalytically competent structures and perform catalysis. However, undesirable effects of Mg²⁺ such as hydrolysis of reactive RNA building blocks and degradation of RNA structures are likely to undermine its beneficial roles in ribozyme catalysis. Further, prebiotic cell-like compartments bounded by fatty acid membranes are destabilized in the presence of Mg²⁺, making ribozyme function inside prebiotically relevant protocells a significant challenge. Therefore, we sought to identify conditions that would enable ribozymes to retain activity at low concentrations of Mg²⁺

SUBMITTER: DasGupta S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10451029 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature