Eugene V. Koonin

SPRIZ (CCDC127) protein conserved in deuterostome animals is a rigid OMM–IMM tether that locally sets mitochondrial IMS volume

The double-membrane nature of mitochondria generates an intermembrane volume through which ions, reactive oxygen species, and metabolites must flux to reach the matrix or cytosol, but whether this volume is a genetically specified structure remains unknown. We identify SPRIZ (spatial regulator of the intermembrane zone...

Computational modeling of an RNA-peptide world

Computational modeling of an RNA-peptide world

It is hypothesize that the RNA world was, actually, an ‘RNA-peptide world’, in which, from the earliest stages of evolution, evolving RNA molecules interacted with short random peptides synthesized in a non-templated manner, which could drive the evolution of diverse RNA structures and activities, and eventually, of th...