TY - JOUR
T1 - Template-directed RNA polymerization and enhanced ribozyme catalysis inside membraneless compartments formed by coacervates
AU - Poudyal, Raghav R.
AU - Guth-Metzler, Rebecca M.
AU - Veenis, Andrew J.
AU - Frankel, Erica A.
AU - Keating, Christine D.
AU - Bevilacqua, Philip C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a grant (290363) from the Simons Foundation to R.R.P. and by NASA grant (80NSSC17K0034).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Membraneless compartments, such as complex coacervates, have been hypothesized as plausible prebiotic micro-compartments due to their ability to sequester RNA; however, their compatibility with essential RNA World chemistries is unclear. We show that such compartments can enhance key prebiotically-relevant RNA chemistries. We demonstrate that template-directed RNA polymerization is sensitive to polycation identity, with polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDAC) outperforming poly(allylamine), poly(lysine), and poly(arginine) in polycation/RNA coacervates. Differences in RNA diffusion rates between PDAC/RNA and oligoarginine/RNA coacervates imply distinct biophysical environments. Template-directed RNA polymerization is relatively insensitive to Mg 2+ concentration when performed in PDAC/RNA coacervates as compared to buffer, even enabling partial rescue of the reaction in the absence of magnesium. Finally, we show enhanced activities of multiple nucleic acid enzymes including two ribozymes and a deoxyribozyme, underscoring the generality of this approach, in which functional nucleic acids like aptamers and ribozymes, and in some cases key cosolutes localize within the coacervate microenvironments.
AB - Membraneless compartments, such as complex coacervates, have been hypothesized as plausible prebiotic micro-compartments due to their ability to sequester RNA; however, their compatibility with essential RNA World chemistries is unclear. We show that such compartments can enhance key prebiotically-relevant RNA chemistries. We demonstrate that template-directed RNA polymerization is sensitive to polycation identity, with polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDAC) outperforming poly(allylamine), poly(lysine), and poly(arginine) in polycation/RNA coacervates. Differences in RNA diffusion rates between PDAC/RNA and oligoarginine/RNA coacervates imply distinct biophysical environments. Template-directed RNA polymerization is relatively insensitive to Mg 2+ concentration when performed in PDAC/RNA coacervates as compared to buffer, even enabling partial rescue of the reaction in the absence of magnesium. Finally, we show enhanced activities of multiple nucleic acid enzymes including two ribozymes and a deoxyribozyme, underscoring the generality of this approach, in which functional nucleic acids like aptamers and ribozymes, and in some cases key cosolutes localize within the coacervate microenvironments.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060917281&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85060917281&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-019-08353-4
DO - 10.1038/s41467-019-08353-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 30700721
AN - SCOPUS:85060917281
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 10
JO - Nature communications
JF - Nature communications
IS - 1
M1 - 490
ER -