Self-division of giant vesicles driven by an internal enzymatic reaction.

Chemical Science
Ylenia MieleFederico Rossi

Abstract

Self-division is one of the most common phenomena in living systems and one of the most important properties of life driven by internal mechanisms of cells. Design and engineering of synthetic cells from abiotic components can recreate a life-like function thus contributing to the understanding of the origin of life. Existing methods to induce the self-division of vesicles require external and non-autonomous triggers (temperature change and the addition of membrane precursors). Here we show that pH-responsive giant unilamellar vesicles on the micrometer scale can undergo self-division triggered by an internal autonomous chemical stimulus driven by an enzymatic (urea-urease) reaction coupled to a cross-membrane transport of the substrate, urea. The bilayer of the artificial cells is composed of a mixture of phospholipids (POPC, 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine) and oleic acid molecules. The enzymatic reaction increases the pH in the lumen of the vesicles, which concomitantly changes the protonation state of the oleic acid in the inner leaflet of the bilayer causing the removal of the membrane building blocks into the lumen of the vesicles thus decreasing the inner membrane area with respect to the outer one....Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 10, 2020·Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta. General Subjects·Ylenia MieleFederico Rossi
Aug 6, 2020·Molecules : a Journal of Synthetic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry·Simona ConcilioStefano Piotto
Nov 18, 2020·The Journal of Membrane Biology·Susovan SarkarSudha Rajamani
May 21, 2021·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Jacob A Vance, Neal K Devaraj
Dec 29, 2020·Angewandte Chemie·Yannik DreherKerstin Göpfrich
Feb 3, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Emiliano AltamuraFabio Mavelli
Mar 2, 2021·Chemical Society Reviews·Santanu Panja, Dave J Adams
Mar 16, 2021·Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences : Official Journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology·Emiliano AltamuraFabio Mavelli
Apr 29, 2021·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Xueyan HuXinglu Huang
Oct 2, 2021·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Roger Rubio-SánchezClaudia Bonfio
Nov 3, 2021·Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology·Wakana SatoKatarzyna P Adamala

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
Fluorescence microscopy
confocal microscopy

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