Sprecher
Beschreibung
Mechanisms to increase chemical selectivity would be important in the prebiotic RNA world. We studied the activity of self-aminoacylating ribozymes for six different amino acid substrates. Ribozyme activity was positively correlated with specificity, indicating that natural selection for increased activity would also lead to increased specificity, as an evolutionary by-product. Another prebiotic mechanism influencing the RNA world would be the selective permeability of protocell membranes. While the selectivity across a single membrane might be modest, multiple lamellae could amplify this effect. A theoretical model indicates that the protocell interior could be substantially enriched in a multilamellar vesicle. These results demonstrate simple mechanisms to increase chemical selection without specialized biochemical machinery.
