Synak Jaroslaw, Rybarczyk Agnieszka, Kasprzak Marta, Blazewicz Jacek
Institute of Computing Science, Poznan University of Technology, 60-965 Poznan, Poland.
European Center for Bioinformatics and Genomics, 60-965 Poznan, Poland.
Entropy (Basel). 2024 Nov 23;26(12):1012. doi: 10.3390/e26121012.
During the evolution of the RNA World, compartments, which were fragments of space surrounded by a primitive lipid membrane, had to have emerged. These led eventually to the formation of modern cellular membranes. Inside these compartments, another process had to take place-switching from RNA to DNA as a primary storage of genetic information. The latter part needed a handful of enzymes for the DNA to be able to perform its function. A natural question arises, i.e., how the concentration of all vital molecules could have been kept in check without modern cellular mechanisms. The authors propose a theory on how it could have worked during early stages, using only short RNA molecules, which could have emerged spontaneously. The hypothesis was analysed mathematically and tested against different scenarios by using computer simulations.
在RNA世界的演化过程中,必须出现由原始脂质膜包围的空间片段——隔室。这些隔室最终导致了现代细胞膜的形成。在这些隔室内,还必须发生另一个过程——从RNA转变为DNA作为遗传信息的主要存储方式。后一过程需要一些酶才能使DNA发挥其功能。一个自然的问题出现了,即如果没有现代细胞机制,所有重要分子的浓度是如何得到控制的。作者提出了一种理论,说明在早期阶段仅使用可能自发出现的短RNA分子时这一过程是如何运作的。该假设经过了数学分析,并通过计算机模拟针对不同情况进行了测试。