Montmorillonit ( Bentonit ) Kilinin, Yaşamın Başlangıcındaki Rolü

Aşağıda ingilizce özeti verilen yakın tarihli bir bilimsel çalışma Bilim Dünyasında büyük bir yankı uyandırmıştır. Bu çalışmada, (Bentonit) montmorillonitin kilinin RNA ile olan ilişkileri incelenmiş, analizler sonucunda elde edilen veriler ışığında,

YAŞAMIN BAŞLANGICI için önemli iki bileşen olan, genetik materyal ve hücre zarlarının, birbirleriyle eşleştirilmesinde Bentonit (montmorillonit) kilinin çok önemli ve etken bir vazife üstlenmiş olabileceği ortaya konmuştur.

Experimental Models Of Primitive Cellular Compartments:
Encapsulation, Growth, And Division
Martin M. Hanczyc,* Shelly M. Fujikawa,* Jack W. Szostak
The clay montmorillonite is known to catalyze the polymerization of RNA from activated ribonucleotides. Here we report that montmorillonite accelerates the spontaneous conversion of fatty acid micelles into vesicles. Clay particles often become encapsulated in these vesicles, thus providing a pathway for the prebioticen capsulation of catalytically active surfaces within membrane vesicles. In addition, RNA adsorbed to clay can be encapsulated within vesicles. Once formed, such
vesicles can grow by incorporating fatty acid supplied as micellesand can divide without dilution of their contents by extrusion through small pores. These processes mediate vesicle replication through cycles of growth and division. The formation, growth, and division of the earliest cells may have occurred in response to similar interactions with mineral particles and inputs of material and energy.

Science (vol 302, p 618)

Two of the crucial components for the origin of life – genetic material and cell membranes – could have been introduced to one another by montmorillonite, new experiments have shown.