Regensburg 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 6: Poster I

BP 6.13: Poster

Montag, 1. April 2019, 17:30–19:30, Poster B2

Probing the Escalation of DNA-Polymerization in Thermal Traps — •Christina Felicitas Dirscherl and Dieter Braun — Systems Biophysics, LMU Munich, Germany

Starting conditions with highly diluted monomers and the 'tyranny of the shortest' are the main problems for de novo strand formation of DNA/RNA on early earth. A possible scenario that could have overcome these issues are thermogravitational traps. We demonstrated that theses traps can accumulate solutions of single molecules at least 35-fold within 30 hours despite their high diffusivity, and that both monomers and activation chemistry molecules (carbodiimide EDC [1]) can be co-accumulated. We could prove that EDC - which is a replacement for the prebiotically plausible cyanoimidazole - polymerizes RNA as well as DNA bases, however only up to 8-mers. Also concentrations of the longer strands decrease exponentially. In thermogravitational traps the accumulation of DNA strands is exponentially length dependent ([2]). Therefore, the trapping procedure is expected to significantly increase the probability that longer strands are linked together. If additionally two complementary monomers are present in the system self-templated ligation can take place which can lead to an escalation of strand formation ([3]).

[1] M. Jauker, H. Griesser and C. Richert, Angew Chem Int Ed 2015 Nov 23; 54(48): 14564-9

[2] C. B. Mast, S. Schink, U. Gerland and D. Braun, PNAS 110(20), 8030-5 (2013)

[3] T. A. Lincoln and G. F. Joyce, Science 323.5918 (2009): 1229-1232