ArticleNature chemistry2012
RNA catalysis through compartmentalization.
Article in Nature chemistry, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 150 papers.
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Who cites it
150 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Macromolecular Condensates as Tunable Scaffolds for Bio-Inspired Silica Hybrids.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Optically driven control of mechanochemistry and fusion dynamics of biomolecular condensates via thymine dimerization.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Recent advances in coacervate protocells from passive catalysts to chemically programmable systems.Communications chemistry · 2026Review
- Complex and Messy Prebiotic Chemistry: Obstacles and Opportunities for an RNA World.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Biomolecular Condensates in and Around the ER-Golgi Interface.Sub-cellular biochemistry · 2026Review
- Crowding Effects in RNA Interactions.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Compartmentalization and Aggregation of Biomolecular Condensates in Crowded Hydrogels for Enhanced Nucleic Acid Diagnosis.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Substrate Exclusion Greenlights Physical Autocatalysis of Enzyme Activity in Membraneless Proto-Organelles.Biomacromolecules · 2025Article
- Autocatalytic Reaction between HCN and Cysteamine Produces Hydrophobic, Catalytic, Liquid Compartments.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Deep generalizable prediction of RNA secondary structure via base pair motif energy.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Aqueous Two-Phase Submicron Droplets Catalyze DNA Nanostructure Assembly for Confined Fluorescent Biosensing.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Origin of the RNA World in Cold Hadean Geothermal Fields Enriched in Zinc and Potassium: Abiogenesis as a Positive Fallout from the Moon-Forming Impact?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Self-growing protocell models in aqueous two-phase system induced by internal DNA replication reaction.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Artificial cells with all-aqueous droplet-in-droplet structures for spatially separated transcription and translation.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Quantification of Biomolecular Condensate Volume Reveals Network Swelling and Dissolution Regimes during Phase Transition.Biomacromolecules · 2025Article
- CRISPR/Cas Enzyme Catalysis in Liquid-Liquid Phase-Separated Systems.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
90 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
RNA performs important cellular functions in contemporary life forms. Its ability to act both as a catalyst and a storage mechanism for genetic information is also an important part of the RNA world hypothesis. Compartmentalization within modern cells allows the local concentration of RNA to be controlled and it has been suggested that this was also important in early life forms. Here, we mimic intracellular compartmentalization and macromolecular crowding by partitioning RNA in an aqueous two-phase system (ATPS). We show that the concentration of RNA is enriched by up to 3,000-fold in the dextran-rich phase of a polyethylene glycol/dextran ATPS and demonstrate that this can lead to approximately 70-fold increase in the rate of ribozyme cleavage. This rate enhancement can be tuned by the relative volumes of the two phases in the ATPS. Our observations support the importance of compartmentalization in the attainment of function in an RNA World as well as in modern biology.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.