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SELF-ASSEMBLY OF LIPID DROPLETS AND POLYRIBONUCLEOTIDES OR

PRIMORDIAL SOUP REVISITED

Erhan SL~leymano~lu1 and Nursen ~oruh 2

1institute of Natural and Applied Sciences, Department of Biotechnology and
2Department of Chemistry, Middle East Technical University, 06531-Ankara,
Turkey,
Fax: 90 312 213 43 38, E-mail: ncoruh@rorqual.cc.metu.edu.tr

Despite the lack of detailed information about the origin of life, no doubt exists
regarding the interest in this subject. There is growing evidence to support the role
of RNA World trying to model evolution of early life.
For proper self-organization of polynucleotides in a test tube there is a need for
specific proteinaceous catalysts-enzymes, which were not present initially in a
primordial soup. However, there were minerals and metal ions acting as less
efficient catalysts. The initial cell membrane appearing before polynucleotides may
have provided a suitable surface for prebiotic RNA synthesis. These RNA-lipid
microspheres interactions could have been stabilized by already existing metal
ions. Having considered the physicochemical characteristics of lipid-nucleic acid
interactions at different levels and their role in functioning of modem cells and
based on our own data as well as that of other research groups, it is possible to
consider the primeval role of divalent cations (Ca2+ and Mg 2+) as an ancestral
condensating agents in such self-organizing systems, the triple associations
between pre-RNA molecules, lipid droplets and metal ions being considered as a
bioinorganic models of protocells.

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