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Hydrophobic-cationic peptides modulate RNA polymerase ribozyme activity by accretion.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Abstract

Accretion and the resulting increase in local concentration is a widespread mechanism in biology to enhance biomolecular functions (for example, in liquid-liquid demixing phases). Such macromolecular aggregation phases (e.g., coacervates, amyloids) may also have played a role in the origin of life. Here, we report that a hydrophobic-cationic RNA binding peptide selected by phage display (P43: AKKVWIIMGGS) forms insoluble amyloid-containing aggregates, which reversibly accrete RNA on their surfaces in an RNA-length and Mg2+-concentration dependent manner. The aggregates formed by P43 or its sequence-simplified version (K2V6: KKVVVVVV) inhibited RNA polymerase ribozyme (RPR) activity at 25 mM MgCl2, while enhancing it significantly at 400 mM MgCl2. Our work shows that such hydrophobic-cationic peptide aggregates can reversibly concentrate RNA and enhance the RPR activity, and suggests that they could have aided the emergence and evolution of longer and functional RNAs in the fluctuating environments of the prebiotic earth.

Description

Funder: the Astrobiology Center of National Institutes of Natural Sciences (AB301005)

Keywords

Article, /631/45/611, /631/45/500, /631/181/904, /82/75, article

Journal Title

Nat Commun

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2041-1723
2041-1723

Volume Title

13

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
MEXT | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (20K14599, 18H01328)
RCUK | Medical Research Council (MRC) (MC_U105178804)