Nature Communications (Sep 2018)

Compartmentalised RNA catalysis in membrane-free coacervate protocells

  • Björn Drobot,
  • Juan M. Iglesias-Artola,
  • Kristian Le Vay,
  • Viktoria Mayr,
  • Mrityunjoy Kar,
  • Moritz Kreysing,
  • Hannes Mutschler,
  • T-Y Dora Tang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06072-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Phase separation of mixtures of oppositely charged polymers provides a simple and direct route to compartmentalisation via coacervation. Here authors demonstrate that a coacervate microenvironment supports RNA catalysis whilst selectively sequestering RNA based on length.