SKM 2023 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 26: Focus Session mRNA Physics

BP 26.3: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 30. März 2023, 15:45–16:00, TOE 317

Creating an evolution machine with 2-3-cyclic RNA — •Dieter Braun — Systems Biophysics, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich

For life to start, a simple physical non-equlibrium mechanism combined with a most robust chemistry of a few molecules had to reach the regime of Darwinian molecular evolution. We found RNA oligomerization and templated ligation from very mildly activated RNA with 2-3-cyclic phosphates [1], with wet-dry cycling at heated air-water interfaces [2]. The oligomerization operated at elevated pH 9-10 without added salts at temperatures between 4-40°C and created oligomers of all four bases with 15 percent yield. It operated in a water-poor 'dry' state. Replication was possible with templated ligation and showed with only 1mM MgCl2 a strongly base-selective templated ligation with 25 percent yield. If catalytic conditions to recycle the hydrolytically opened 2-3-cyclic phosphate from linear 2 prime or 3 prime endings wcould be found, the reaction would operate indefinitely without feeding in a thermal gradient setting. We will show preliminary experiments for local feeding, vesiculation and protein expression in the same setting. The experiments suggest a most simple scenario for the emergence of life from only two nucleotide molecules, implemented in an early Earth volcanic setting under a CO2 atmosphere. It showcases how physics and chemistry could have acted together in a geologically abundant microfluidic setting to create Darwinian evolution.

[1] ChemSystemsChem doi.org/10.1002/syst.202200026 (2022)

[2] Nature Physics doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01516-z (2022)