Lipid vesicles chaperone an encapsulated RNA aptamer.

The organization of molecules into cells is believed to have been critical for the emergence of living systems. Early protocells likely consisted of RNA functioning inside vesicles made of simple lipids. However, little is known about how encapsulation would affect the activity and folding of RNA. Here we find that confinement of the malachite green RNA aptamer inside fatty acid vesicles increases binding affinity and locally stabilizes the bound conformation of the RNA. The vesicle effectively 'chaperones' the aptamer, consistent with an excluded volume mechanism due to confinement. Protocellular organization thereby leads to a direct benefit for the RNA. Coupled with previously described mechanisms by which encapsulated RNA aids membrane growth, this effect illustrates how the membrane and RNA might cooperate for mutual benefit. Encapsulation could thus increase RNA fitness and the likelihood that functional sequences would emerge during the origin of life

RNA catalysis in model protocell vesicles.

We are engaged in a long-term effort to synthesize chemical systems capable of Darwinian evolution, based on the encapsulation of self-replicating nucleic acids in self-replicating membrane vesicles. Here, we address the issue of the compatibility of these two replicating systems. Fatty acids form vesicles that are able to grow and divide, but vesicles composed solely of fatty acids are incompatible with the folding and activity of most ribozymes, because low concentrations of divalent cations (e.g., Mg(2+)) cause fatty acids to precipitate. Furthermore, vesicles that grow and divide must be permeable to the cations and substrates required for internal metabolism. We used a mixture of myristoleic acid and its glycerol monoester to construct vesicles that were Mg(2+)-tolerant and found that Mg(2+) cations can permeate the membrane and equilibrate within a few minutes. In vesicles encapsulating a hammerhead ribozyme, the addition of external Mg(2+) led to the activation and self-cleavage of the ribozyme molecules. Vesicles composed of these amphiphiles grew spontaneously through osmotically driven competition between vesicles, and further modification of the membrane composition allowed growth following mixed micelle addition. Our results show that membranes made from simple amphiphiles can form vesicles that are stable enough to retain encapsulated RNAs in the presence of divalent cations, yet dynamic enough to grow spontaneously and allow the passage of Mg(2+) and mononucleotides without specific macromolecular transporters. This combination of stability and dynamics is critical for building model protocells in the laboratory and may have been important for early cellular evolution

The prebiotic evolutionary advantage of transferring genetic information from RNA to DNA.

In the early 'RNA world' stage of life, RNA stored genetic information and catalyzed chemical reactions. However, the RNA world eventually gave rise to the DNA-RNA-protein world, and this transition included the 'genetic takeover' of information storage by DNA. We investigated evolutionary advantages for using DNA as the genetic material. The error rate of replication imposes a fundamental limit on the amount of information that can be stored in the genome, as mutations degrade information. We compared misincorporation rates of RNA and DNA in experimental non-enzymatic polymerization and calculated the lowest possible error rates from a thermodynamic model. Both analyses found that RNA replication was intrinsically error-prone compared to DNA, suggesting that total genomic information could increase after the transition to DNA. Analysis of the transitional RNA/DNA hybrid duplexes showed that copying RNA into DNA had similar fidelity to RNA replication, so information could be maintained during the genetic takeover. However, copying DNA into RNA was very error-prone, suggesting that attempts to return to the RNA world would result in a considerable loss of information. Therefore, the genetic takeover may have been driven by a combination of increased chemical stability, increased genome size and irreversibility

Improved single-swab sample preparation for recovering bacterial and phage DNA from human skin and wound microbiomes.

BackgroundCharacterization of the skin and wound microbiome is of high biomedical interest, but is hampered by the low biomass of typical samples. While sample preparation from other microbiomes (e.g., gut) has been the subject of extensive optimization, procedures for skin and wound microbiomes have received relatively little attention. Here we describe an improved method for obtaining both phage and microbial DNA from a single skin or wound swab, characterize the yield of DNA in model samples, and demonstrate the utility of this approach with samples collected from a wound clinic.ResultsWe find a substantial improvement when processing wound samples in particular; while only one-quarter of wound samples processed by a traditional method yielded sufficient DNA for downstream analysis, all samples processed using the improved method yielded sufficient DNA. Moreover, for both skin and wound samples, community analysis and viral reads obtained through deep sequencing of clinical swab samples showed significant improvement with the use of the improved method.ConclusionUse of this method may increase the efficiency and data quality of microbiome studies from low-biomass samples

The Emergence of Competition Between Model Protocells

The transition from independent molecular entities to cellular structures with integrated behaviors was a crucial aspect of the origin of life. We show that simple physical principles can mediate a coordinated interaction between genome and compartment boundary, independent of any genomic functions beyond self-replication. RNA, encapsulated in fatty acid vesicles, exerts an osmotic pressure on the vesicle membrane that drives the uptake of additional membrane components, leading to membrane growth at the expense of relaxed vesicles, which shrink. Thus, more efficient RNA replication could cause faster cell growth, leading to the emergence of Darwinian evolution at the cellular level

The Basic Reproductive Ratio of Life

Template-directed polymerization of nucleotides is believed to be a pathway for the replication of genetic material in the earliest cells. We assume that activated monomers are produced by prebiotic chemistry. These monomers can undergo spontaneous polymerization, a system that we call “prelife.” Adding template-directed polymerization changes the equilibrium structure of prelife if the rate constants meet certain criteria. In particular, if the basic reproductive ratio of sequences of a certain length exceeds one, then those sequences can attain high abundance. Furthermore, if many sequences replicate, then the longest sequences can reach high abundance even if the basic reproductive ratios of all sequences are less than one. We call this phenomenon “subcritical life.” Subcritical life suggests that sequences long enough to be ribozymes can become abundant even if replication is relatively inefficient. Our work on the evolution of replication has interesting parallels to infection dynamics. Life (replication) can be seen as an infection of prelife.MathematicsOrganismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Diagnosis and management of testicular compartment syndrome caused by tension hydrocele

A hydrocele is an abnormal collection of fluid within the tunica vaginalis which may either be congenital or acquired. Hydroceles are usually painless and don\u27t require immediate intervention unless they impact activities of daily living. This case demonstrates a rare complication of hydroceles termed tension hydrocele which presented with scrotal swelling and acute pain. Unlike the classic presentation of hydroceles with minimal pain or discomfort, it is important to recognize tension hydroceles as an extremely rare but possible cause of acute scrotum, which needs to be emergently diagnosed and treated

Genetic drift suppresses bacterial conjugation in spatially structured populations

Conjugation is the primary mechanism of horizontal gene transfer that spreads antibiotic resistance among bacteria. Although conjugation normally occurs in surface-associated growth (e.g., biofilms), it has been traditionally studied in well-mixed liquid cultures lacking spatial structure, which is known to affect many evolutionary and ecological processes. Here we visualize spatial patterns of gene transfer mediated by F plasmid conjugation in a colony of Escherichia coli growing on solid agar, and we develop a quantitative understanding by spatial extension of traditional mass-action models. We found that spatial structure suppresses conjugation in surface-associated growth because strong genetic drift leads to spatial isolation of donor and recipient cells, restricting conjugation to rare boundaries between donor and recipient strains. These results suggest that ecological strategies, such as enforcement of spatial structure and enhancement of genetic drift, could complement molecular strategies in slowing the spread of antibiotic resistance genes

Spin-based quantum information processing with semiconductor quantum dots and cavity QED

A quantum information processing scheme is proposed with semiconductor quantum dots located in a high-Q single mode QED cavity. The spin degrees of freedom of one excess conduction electron of the quantum dots are employed as qubits. Excitonic states, which can be produced ultrafastly with optical operation, are used as auxiliary states in the realization of quantum gates. We show how properly tailored ultrafast laser pulses and Pauli-blocking effects, can be used to achieve a universal encoded quantum computing.Comment: RevTex, 2 figure