title: Mobility of a Mononucleotide within a Lipid Matrix: A Neutron Scattering Study.
abstract: An essential question in studies on the origins of life is how nucleic acids were first synthesized and then incorporated into compartments about 4 billion years ago. A recent discovery is that guided polymerization within organizing matrices could promote a non-enzymatic condensation reaction allowing the formation of RNA-like polymers, followed by encapsulation in lipid membranes. Here, we used neutron scattering and deuterium labelling to investigate 5'-adenosine monophosphate (AMP) molecules captured in a multilamellar phospholipid matrix. The aim of the research was to determine and compare how mononucleotides are captured and differently organized within matrices and multilamellar phospholipid structures and to explore the role of water in organizing the system to determine at which level the system becomes sufficiently anhydrous to lock the AMP molecules into an organized structure and initiate ester bond synthesis. Elastic incoherent neutron scattering experiments were thus employed to investigate the changes of the dynamic properties of AMP induced by embedding the molecules within the lipid matrix. The influence of AMP addition to the lipid membrane organization was determined through diffraction measurement, which also helped us to define the best working Q range for dynamical data analysis with respect to specific hydration. The use of different complementary instruments allowed coverage of a wide time-scale domain, from ns to ps, of atomic mean square fluctuations, providing evidence of a well-defined dependence of the AMP dynamics on the hydration level.
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), 71, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. misuraca.loreto@gmail.com.|Dipartimento di Fisica e Chimica, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 17, 90128 Palermo, Italy. misuraca.loreto@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Loreto
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Misuraca
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), 71, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. natali@ill.fr.|Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto Officina dei Materiali (CNR-IOM), Research Unit in Grenoble, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. natali@ill.fr.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Natali
authors.affiliation: Institut de Systematique, Évolution, Biodiversité, (ISYEB) UMR 7205 CNRS-MNHN-UPMC-EPHE Sorbonne Universités, CP50, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France. lddasilvalaura@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), 71, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. jpeters@ill.fr.|Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), UFR PhITEM, 621 Avenue Centrale, 38000 Grenoble, France. jpeters@ill.fr.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), 71, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. deme@ill.fr.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Demé
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), 71, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. ollivier@ill.fr.
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ollivier
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), 71, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. seydel@ill.fr.
authors.forename: Tilo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Seydel
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), 71, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. laux@ill.fr.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Laux-Lesourd
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), 71, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. haertlein@ill.fr.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haertlein
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), 71, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. zaccai@ill.fr.|Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS), 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. zaccai@ill.fr.|Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), 17 Avenue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble, France. zaccai@ill.fr.|Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), 25 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France. zaccai@ill.fr.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zaccai
authors.affiliation: University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA. deamer@soe.ucsc.edu.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Deamer
authors.affiliation: Institut de Systematique, Évolution, Biodiversité, (ISYEB) UMR 7205 CNRS-MNHN-UPMC-EPHE Sorbonne Universités, CP50, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France. marie-christine.maurel@upmc.fr.
authors.forename: Marie Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Maurel
keywords: hydration; mononucleotide mobility; multilamellar lipid matrix; neutron scattering