Abstract
The structural integrity of living plant cells heavily relies on the plant cell wall containing a nanofibrous cellulose skeleton. Hence, if synthetic plant cells consist of such a cell wall, they would allow for manipulation into more complex synthetic plant structures. Herein, we have overcome the fundamental difficulties associated with assembling lipid vesicles with cellulosic nanofibers (CNFs). We prepare plantosomes with an outer shell of CNF and pectin, and beneath this, a thin layer of lipids (oleic acid and phospholipids) that surrounds a water core. By exploiting the phase behavior of the lipids, regulated by pH and Mg2+ ions, we form vesicle-crowded interiors that change the outer dimension of the plantosomes, mimicking the expansion in real plant cells during, e.g., growth. The internal pressure enables growth of lipid tubules through the plantosome cell wall, which paves the way to the development of hierarchical plant structures and advanced synthetic plant cell mimics.
Highlights
The structural integrity of living plant cells heavily relies on the plant cell wall containing a nanofibrous cellulose skeleton
More robust giant unilamellar phospholipid vesicles (GUVs) were successfully prepared, by using an outer stabilizing layer of block copolymers to first encapsulate several small vesicles in water-in-oil droplets, followed by the fusion of vesicles into one single GUV inside each water droplet[16]. Such a protocol cannot be used with natural cellulosic nanofibers (CNFs), as CNFs can only be dispersed in water
We studied the self-assembly of oleic acid (OA)/oleate and the polysaccharides to understand how the phase behavior of OA could be exploited to make artificial plant cells
Summary
The structural integrity of living plant cells heavily relies on the plant cell wall containing a nanofibrous cellulose skeleton. A major challenge when constructing synthetic plant cells is to prepare a continuous cellulose microfibril layer on top of biomimetic plasma membranes[11]. Cellulosic microfibrils can be extracted from plants in the form of cellulosic nanofibers (CNFs)[14] Due to their considerable length and semicrystalline nature, it has not been possible to assemble CNFs on top of vesicles; lipid vesicles typically have diameters below the micrometer range, while CNFs consist of stiff crystalline segments (~300 nm in wood) and only allow coating formation on top of spherical structures above ~600 nm in diameter[15]. The present study represents an important step toward fabrication of advanced synthetic plant cells, and studies of such synthetic cells in physiologically relevant settings might improve our understanding of the evolution of plant cells
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