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Prebiotically-relevant low polyion multivalency can improve functionality of membraneless compartments
Multivalent polyions can undergo complex coacervation, producing membraneless compartments that accumulate ribozymes and enhance catalysis, and offering a mechanism for functional prebiotic compartmentalization in the origins of life. Here, we evaluate the impact of lower, more prebiotically-relevan...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7683531/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33230101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19775-w |
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author | Cakmak, Fatma Pir Choi, Saehyun Meyer, McCauley O. Bevilacqua, Philip C. Keating, Christine D. |
author_facet | Cakmak, Fatma Pir Choi, Saehyun Meyer, McCauley O. Bevilacqua, Philip C. Keating, Christine D. |
author_sort | Cakmak, Fatma Pir |
collection | PubMed |
description | Multivalent polyions can undergo complex coacervation, producing membraneless compartments that accumulate ribozymes and enhance catalysis, and offering a mechanism for functional prebiotic compartmentalization in the origins of life. Here, we evaluate the impact of lower, more prebiotically-relevant, polyion multivalency on the functional performance of coacervates as compartments. Positively and negatively charged homopeptides with 1–100 residues and adenosine mono-, di-, and triphosphate nucleotides are used as model polyions. Polycation/polyanion pairs are tested for coacervation, and resulting membraneless compartments are analyzed for salt resistance, ability to provide a distinct internal microenvironment (apparent local pH, RNA partitioning), and effect on RNA structure formation. We find that coacervates formed by phase separation of the shorter polyions more effectively generated distinct pH microenvironments, accumulated RNA, and preserved duplexes than those formed by longer polyions. Hence, coacervates formed by reduced multivalency polyions are not only viable as functional compartments for prebiotic chemistries, they can outperform higher molecular weight analogues. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7683531 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-76835312020-12-03 Prebiotically-relevant low polyion multivalency can improve functionality of membraneless compartments Cakmak, Fatma Pir Choi, Saehyun Meyer, McCauley O. Bevilacqua, Philip C. Keating, Christine D. Nat Commun Article Multivalent polyions can undergo complex coacervation, producing membraneless compartments that accumulate ribozymes and enhance catalysis, and offering a mechanism for functional prebiotic compartmentalization in the origins of life. Here, we evaluate the impact of lower, more prebiotically-relevant, polyion multivalency on the functional performance of coacervates as compartments. Positively and negatively charged homopeptides with 1–100 residues and adenosine mono-, di-, and triphosphate nucleotides are used as model polyions. Polycation/polyanion pairs are tested for coacervation, and resulting membraneless compartments are analyzed for salt resistance, ability to provide a distinct internal microenvironment (apparent local pH, RNA partitioning), and effect on RNA structure formation. We find that coacervates formed by phase separation of the shorter polyions more effectively generated distinct pH microenvironments, accumulated RNA, and preserved duplexes than those formed by longer polyions. Hence, coacervates formed by reduced multivalency polyions are not only viable as functional compartments for prebiotic chemistries, they can outperform higher molecular weight analogues. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7683531/ /pubmed/33230101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19775-w Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Cakmak, Fatma Pir Choi, Saehyun Meyer, McCauley O. Bevilacqua, Philip C. Keating, Christine D. Prebiotically-relevant low polyion multivalency can improve functionality of membraneless compartments |
title | Prebiotically-relevant low polyion multivalency can improve functionality of membraneless compartments |
title_full | Prebiotically-relevant low polyion multivalency can improve functionality of membraneless compartments |
title_fullStr | Prebiotically-relevant low polyion multivalency can improve functionality of membraneless compartments |
title_full_unstemmed | Prebiotically-relevant low polyion multivalency can improve functionality of membraneless compartments |
title_short | Prebiotically-relevant low polyion multivalency can improve functionality of membraneless compartments |
title_sort | prebiotically-relevant low polyion multivalency can improve functionality of membraneless compartments |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7683531/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33230101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19775-w |
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