A3: Catalytic cofactor ancestors to promote P-O bond formation for RNA polymerization (Golo Storch)
Organic cofactors found in nature are catalytically active in a plethora of different transformations. Interestingly, many cofactors also show catalytic activity without a surrounding enzyme, which underlines their relevance in prebiotic transformations. While organic cofactors of today’s world are referred to as “molecular fossils” because of their plausible early origin, a wide variety of cofactor variants is expected to have played a role as catalysts in the prebiotic environment but might not have been conserved until today. It is the key aim of project A3 to identify plausible “cofactor ancestors” in the organic laboratory and to study their catalytic activity in the context of P‒O bond formation, which is a crucial elementary step in RNA polymerization.