Permeation of Aldopentoses and Nucleosides Through Fatty Acid and Phospholipid Membranes: Implications to the Origins of Life

Permeation of aldopentoses and nucleosides through fatty acid and phospholipid membranes was investigated by way of molecular dynamics simulations. Calculated permeability coefficients of membranes to aldopentoses, which exist predominantly in the pyranose form, are in a very good agreement with experimental results. The unexpected preferential permeation of ribose, compared to its diastereomers, found by Sacerdote and Szostak, is explained in terms of inter- and intramolecular interactions involving hydroxyl groups. In aqueous solution, these groups favor the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds with neighboring water molecules. Inside the membrane, however, they form intramolecular hydrogen bonds, which in ribose are arranged in a chain. In its diastereomers this chain is broken, which yields higher free energy barrier to transfer through membranes. Faster permeation of ribose would lead to its preferential accumulation inside cells if sugars were converted sufficiently quickly to nonpermeable derivatives. An estimate for the rate of such reaction was derived. Preferential accumulation of ribose would increase the probability of correct monomers' incorporation during synthesis of nucleic acids inside protocells. The same mechanism does not apply to nucleosides or their activated derivatives because sugars are locked in the furanose form, which contains fewer exocyclic hydroxyl groups than does pyranose. The results of this study underscore concerted early evolution of membranes and the biochemical processes that they encapsulated.