| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Surface Science | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session SS+AS-WeM |
| Session: | Catalysis in Prebiotic Chemistry (8:00-10:00 am)/Environmental Interfaces (10:40 am-12:00 pm) |
| Presenter: | U.F. Müller, University of California San Diego |
| Authors: | J.E. Moretti, University of California San Diego G.F. Dolan, University of California San Diego U.F. Müller, University of California San Diego |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The RNA world hypothesis describes a stage in the early origin of life in which RNA molecules served as genome and as the major genome-encoded catalyst. RNA world organisms must have existed more than 3.5 billion years ago, which makes it unlikely that direct evidence of them can be found. In contrast, researchers are trying to recapitulate these early stages of life in the lab. These efforts identified processes that can generate nucleosides under prebiotically plausible conditions, and have generated catalytic RNAs that are able to polymerize RNAs from nucleoside 5'-triphosphates. The latter would be the central activity in a self-replicating RNA organism. However, it has not been shown how nucleosides can be converted to nucleoside 5'-triphosphates in an RNA World scenario. Here we describe a new catalytic RNA that generates RNA 5'-triphosphates from RNAs with 5'-hydroxyl groups, using trimetaphosphate. Trimetaphosphate is a prebiotically plausible compound because it can be generated by volcanic processes and by the erosion of phosphide minerals. The catalytic RNAs were obtained by in vitro selection and work with pseudo-first order rate constants > 0.01 min-1. We are currently trying to identify variants of these catalytic RNAs that are able to triphosphorylate single nucleosides in multi-turnover reactions. In summary, our results show that catalytic RNAs can triphosphorylate RNA 5'-hydroxyl groups with trimetaphosphate and further the efforts to re-surrect RNA world organisms.