In a new study published in the PNAS journal, Tomasz Czerniak and James Sáenz discovered that lipids can directly modulate the activity of RNA in a simple synthetic system. “This opens up a completely new path to think about how we can use RNA-lipid interactions for bioengineering,” says Dr. James Sáenz, research group leader at the B CUBE – Center for Molecular Bioengineering and the senior author of the study. In addition, their work can also help to give clues about the origin of ancient life. A popular hypothesis on the origin of life is that life itself likely emerged from self-replicating RNA molecules, years before the evolution of DNA and proteins. Here, the simple and effective way of modulating RNA activity would be the key for the organization of early life on an ancient Earth.

https://tu-dresden.de/cmcb/bcube/news-termine/news/eine-unerwartete-anziehung-von-nukleinsaeuren-und-fett