Papers

Peer-reviewed International journal
Oct 21, 2022

Pressure-temperature control of activity of RNA polymerase ribozyme.

Biophysical chemistry
  • Shuntaro Takahashi
  • ,
  • Naoki Sugimoto

Volume
292
Number
First page
106914
Last page
106914
Language
English
Publishing type
Research paper (scientific journal)
DOI
10.1016/j.bpc.2022.106914

A representative role of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) is in the storage of genetic information. In contrast, RNAs act as ribozymes that catalyze various biochemical reactions. The "RNA world" hypothesis suggests that the origin of life was RNA because a ribozyme that shows RNA replication activity has been identified. However, prebiotic conditions in the RNA world remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of high pressure and temperature on RNA replication using an RNA polymerase ribozyme tC9Y. We found that pressure accelerated the RNA replication activity of tC9Y ribozyme at higher temperatures than physiological conditions. Furthermore, molecular crowding by concentrated polyethylene glycol 200 (average molecular weight 200) synergistically enhanced the replication activity at higher pressure and temperature because the negative effect of a volumetric contribution of hydration on the tC9Y ribozyme activity decreased under crowding conditions. As a comparison, proteinaceous RNA polymerase that exists in the modern era did not show accelerated activity under high pressure and temperature. Thus, these results imply that the prebiotic conditions for the RNA world were at high pressure and temperatures under crowding conditions.

Link information
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpc.2022.106914
PubMed
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36327693
ID information
  • DOI : 10.1016/j.bpc.2022.106914
  • Pubmed ID : 36327693

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