Wet Dry RNA (IMAGE)

Penn State

Wet Dry RNA

Caption

As mixtures of membraneless compartments, called complex coacervates, are dried, the concentrations of all components increase as the total volume decreases. The preference of an added RNA molecule to locate within the coacervate droplets decreases with drying while its mobility increases. These results emphasize the importance of carefully considering the environment in studies of membraneless coacervate compartments as models of protocells in the early evolution of life on Earth.

Credit

Hadi Fares, Penn State

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