Nonenzymatic RNA ligation in water.
Pino, Samanta ; Ciciriello, Fabiana ; Costanzo, Giovanna ; et al. ; - ASI Sponsor
Dec - 2008
DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M805333200
ISSN : 0021-9258 ;
journal : The Journal of biological chemistry

Volume : 283 ; Issue : 52
type: Article Journal

Abstract
We describe the nonenzymatic ligation of RNA oligomers in water. Dimers and tetramers are formed in a time-, pH-, and temperature-dependent reaction. Ligation efficiency depends on oligonucleotide length and sequence and is strongly enhanced by adenine-based nucleotide cofactors. Ligation of short RNA fragments could have liberated the prebiotic polymerization systems from the thermodynamically demanding task of reaching a (pre)genetically meaningful size by stepwise addition of one precursor monomer at the time.

keywords : Adenine,Adenine: chemistry,Biochemistry,Biochemistry: methods,Dimerization,Hydrogen-Ion Concentration,Kinetics,Nucleic Acid Conformation,Oligonucleotides,Oligonucleotides: chemistry,Penicillium,Penicillium: enzymology,RNA,RNA: chemistry,Ribonucleases,Ribonucleases: chemistry,Temperature,Thermodynamics,Time Factors,Water,Water: chemistry