Hunan Key Laboratory of Mineral Materials and Application, School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Cardio-Cerebral Vascular Detection Technology and Medicinal Effectiveness Appraisal, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
J Phys Chem Lett. 2024 May 16;15(19):5295-5305. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.4c00460. Epub 2024 May 9.
Coacervate microdroplets, a protocell model in exploring the origin of life, have gained significant attention. Clay minerals, catalysts during the origin of life, are crucial in the chemical evolution of small molecules into biopolymers. However, our understanding of the relationship between clay minerals and the formation and evolution of protocells on early Earth remains limited. In this work, the nanoclay montmorillonite nanosheet (MMT-Na) was employed to investigate its interaction with coacervate microdroplets formed by oligolysine (K10) and adenine nucleoside triphosphate (ATP). As an anionic component, MMT-Na was noted to promote the formation of coacervate microdroplets. Furthermore, the efficiency of ssDNA enrichment and the degree of ssDNA hybridization within these microdroplets were significantly improved. By combining inorganic nanoclay with organic biopolymers, our work provides an efficient way to enrich genetic biomolecules in the primitive Earth environment and builds a nanoclay-based coacervate microdroplets, shedding new light on life's origin and protocell evolution.
凝聚体微滴是探索生命起源的原细胞模型，受到了广泛关注。粘土矿物是生命起源过程中的催化剂，对于小分子向生物聚合物的化学演化至关重要。然而，我们对于粘土矿物与早期地球上原细胞的形成和演化之间的关系的理解仍然有限。在这项工作中，使用纳米粘土蒙脱石纳米片（MMT-Na）来研究其与由低聚赖氨酸（K10）和腺嘌呤核苷三磷酸（ATP）形成的凝聚体微滴的相互作用。作为一种阴离子成分，MMT-Na 被发现可以促进凝聚体微滴的形成。此外，微滴内 ssDNA 的富集效率和 ssDNA 杂交程度都得到了显著提高。通过将无机纳米粘土与有机生物聚合物结合，我们的工作为在原始地球环境中富集遗传生物分子提供了一种有效的方法，并构建了基于纳米粘土的凝聚体微滴，为生命起源和原细胞演化提供了新的思路。
