Collaboration between primitive cell membranes and soluble catalysts

Katarzyna P. Adamala, Aaron E. Engelhart and Jack W. Szostak ()
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Katarzyna P. Adamala: Massachusetts General Hospital
Aaron E. Engelhart: Massachusetts General Hospital
Jack W. Szostak: Massachusetts General Hospital

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract One widely held model of early life suggests primitive cells consisted of simple RNA-based catalysts within lipid compartments. One possible selective advantage conferred by an encapsulated catalyst is stabilization of the compartment, resulting from catalyst-promoted synthesis of key membrane components. Here we show model protocell vesicles containing an encapsulated enzyme that promotes the synthesis of simple fatty acid derivatives become stabilized to Mg2+, which is required for ribozyme activity and RNA synthesis. Thus, protocells capable of such catalytic transformations would have enjoyed a selective advantage over other protocells in high Mg2+ environments. The synthetic transformation requires both the catalyst and vesicles that solubilize the water-insoluble precursor lipid. We suggest that similar modified lipids could have played a key role in early life, and that primitive lipid membranes and encapsulated catalysts, such as ribozymes, may have acted in conjunction with each other, enabling otherwise-impossible chemical transformations within primordial cells.

Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11041

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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11041

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