Diluting Contents of Primitive Cells Increases Activation of RNA Enzyme (IMAGE)
Caption
Fatty acid vesicles containing split fragments of an RNA enzyme (black) and high concentrations of short pieces of RNA (red) exhibit no enzyme activity because the short pieces bind to complementary sequences in the RNA enzyme (upper left). When vesicles comprised of membranes containing a simple fatty acid derivative and more complex molecules called phospholipids are mixed with those not containing phospholipids (lower images), the phospholipid-containing vesicles expand by taking up membrane components from the simpler vesicles. This growth dilutes the contents of the phospholipid-containing vesicles, separating the short pieces of RNA from the enzyme fragments, allowing the fragments to assemble and activating the enzyme. (upper right).
Credit
Katarzyna Adamala, PhD, Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital
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