Abstract
Molecular assembly systems that have autonomous reproduction and Darwinian evolution abilities can be considered as minimal cell-like systems. Here we demonstrate the reproduction of cell-sized vesicles composed of AOT, i.e., sodium bis-(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate, coupled with an enzymatic polymerisation reaction occurring on the surface of the vesicles. The particular reaction used is the horseradish peroxidase-catalysed polymerisation of aniline with hydrogen peroxide as oxidant, which yields polyaniline in its emeraldine salt form (PANI-ES). If AOT micelles are added during this polymerisation reaction, the AOT - PANI-ES vesicles interact with the AOT molecules in the external solution and selectively incorporate them in their membrane, which leads to a growth of the vesicles. If the AOT vesicles also contain cholesterol, the vesicles not only show growth, but also reproduction. An important characteristic of this reproduction system is that the AOT-based vesicles encourage the synthesis of PANI-ES and PANI-ES promotes the growth of AOT vesicles.
Highlights
Molecular assembly systems that have autonomous reproduction and Darwinian evolution abilities can be considered as minimal cell-like systems
The purpose of this study is to show that the “template”assisted enzymatic polymerisation occurring on the surface of the vesicles, known as polyaniline in its emeraldine salt form (PANI-ES) synthesis on AOT vesicles, brings the reproduction of vesicles by feeding membrane molecules, which is a promising system for the development of minimal cells
We have developed a model for a minimal cell system which consists of the reproduction of vesicles coupled with a “template”assisted enzymatic polymerisation occurring on the surface of the vesicles
Summary
Molecular assembly systems that have autonomous reproduction and Darwinian evolution abilities can be considered as minimal cell-like systems. Among several gateways towards the synthesis of minimal cells, one of the soft matter approaches focuses on constructing minimal cells using well-defined vesicle membrane-forming molecules to hopefully reveal some of the underlying physical chemical mechanisms of the growth and reproduction of living systems[5,6,7,8]. The transformed membrane molecules incorporate into the vesicle membrane, which leads to vesicle growth or even division into independent vesicles having similar properties as the mother vesicles[9,10,11,12] Such simple reproducing vesicle systems were initially developed by Luisi’s group[10,11], whereby the growth and division of oleic acid vesicles was induced by the hydrolysis of oleic anhydride into oleic acid and oleate. In this study we demonstrate a specific example of the reproduction of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) coupled with a vesicle surface-confined enzymatic polymerisation reaction
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