Abstract
In the pursuit of understanding life, model membranes made of phospholipids were envisaged decades ago as a platform for the bottom-up study of biological processes. Micron-sized lipid vesicles have gained great acceptance as their bilayer membrane resembles the natural cell membrane. Important biological events involving membranes, such as membrane protein insertion, membrane fusion, and intercellular communication, will be highlighted in this review with recent research updates. We will first review different lipid bilayer platforms used for incorporation of integral membrane proteins and challenges associated with their functional reconstitution. We next discuss different methods for reconstitution of membrane fusion and compare their fusion efficiency. Lastly, we will highlight the importance and challenges of intercellular communication between synthetic cells and synthetic cells-to-natural cells. We will summarize the review by highlighting the challenges and opportunities associated with studying membrane–membrane interactions and possible future research directions.
Highlights
Nature is the prime source of inspiration for humans to understand life and create something new
The scientific community has not been untouched by this inventiveness that has led to many novel research branches, for example biomimicry, synthetic cell research, and in vitro protein synthesis as the frontiers in the field of synthetic biology [1,2,3,4,5,6]
There exists two ways to achieve droplet interface bilayer (DIB), one where lipids are dissolved in oil and the other where lipids are introduced in the form of small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs) inside the aqueous droplet to the water–oil interface [17,37]
Summary
Nature is the prime source of inspiration for humans to understand life and create something new. Cell membrane is the first boundary that draws the physical existence of the cell It serves as a barrier where internal materials (DNA, proteins, and organelles) are separated and protected from the outside environment. It acts as a gatekeeper that allows unassisted passage of substances such as water and gases, but not large molecules This semi-permeable nature of the cell membrane is regulated by diffusion or with the aid of special transporters across the cell membrane such as ion channels and transporters. The cell membrane plays a vital role in almost all the cellular processes, such as endocytosis, exocytosis, membrane fusion, inter- and intra-cellular communications, and fertilization. We will highlight some of the extensively studied membrane proteins and recent research updates. Inter/intra-cellular communication will be discussed, where we will highlight some recent research on synthetic cell-to-synthetic cell and synthetic-to-natural cell communications
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