Proteinaceous aggregates called amyloids may have played a role in the origins of life, according to a new study. A research team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) has shown that amyloids can bind to RNA and DNA molecules and thereby stabilize them, the university announced on Monday.
The corresponding study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Research has not yet clarified how life emerged from lifeless matter three to four billion years ago.
Evolution has done a good job of hiding tracks
Because evolution has erased the traces leading back to the origins of life during this period, science has no choice but to put forward hypotheses and justify them with experimental data, the researchers explained in the statement.
The research team at ETH Zurich led by Roland Riek has been pursuing the idea for years that amyloids could have played a role in this transition from matter to life. The researchers see the finding that amyloids can bind to genetic material as an indication of this.
Molecules in primordial soup are highly diluted
It is important that DNA and RNA gain stability when bound to amyloids. Because the biochemical molecules in the primordial soup that eventually gave rise to life were highly diluted, this process is beneficial. Amyloids therefore have the potential to increase the local concentration and order of RNA and DNA building blocks in an otherwise dilute, disordered system.
Source: Krone
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