Formation of nucleic acid coacervates by dehydration and rehydration.

Abstract

NUCLEIC acid subjected to simple environmental changes of dehydration and rehydration will yield coacervates under a wide range of conditions. Coacervation has long been postulated as an important means of concentrating the substances necessary for the origin of cells1. Several investigators have speculated that dehydration and rehydration phenomena may have been important on the primitive Earth2,3. We have already shown4 that coacervates could be formed from a possible prebiological polymer, thermal proteinoid, by means of simple dehydration and rehydration. Experiments were carried out using nucleic acid to see whether similar self-organizing tendencies exist under the same conditions.