Clays May Have Aided Formation of Primordial Cells
HHMI News: Clays May Have Aided Formation of Primordial Cells: "In their experiments, Szostak and his colleagues found that adding small quantities of the clay, montmorillonite, to fatty acid micelles greatly accelerated the formation of vesicles. They also discovered that many other substances with negatively-charged surfaces also catalyzed formation of vesicles.
When the researchers loaded montmorillonite particles with a fluorescently labeled RNA and added those particles to micelles, they detected the RNA-loaded particles inside the resulting vesicles. And, going a step further, Szostak and his colleagues showed that when they encapsulated labeled RNA alone inside vesicles, it did not leak out."
When the researchers loaded montmorillonite particles with a fluorescently labeled RNA and added those particles to micelles, they detected the RNA-loaded particles inside the resulting vesicles. And, going a step further, Szostak and his colleagues showed that when they encapsulated labeled RNA alone inside vesicles, it did not leak out."