TY - JOUR
T1 - Acyl Phosphates as Chemically Fueled Building Blocks for Self-Sustaining Protocells
AU - Zozulia, Oleksii
AU - Kriebisch, Christine M.E.
AU - Kriebisch, Brigitte A.K.
AU - Soria-Carrera, Héctor
AU - Ryadi, Kingu Rici
AU - Steck, Juliana
AU - Boekhoven, Job
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors. Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Lipids spontaneously assemble into vesicle-forming membranes. Such vesicles serve as compartments for even the simplest living systems. Vesicles have been extensively studied for constructing synthetic cells or as models for protocells—the cells hypothesized to have existed before life. These compartments exist almost always close to equilibrium. Life, however, exists out of equilibrium. In this work, we studied vesicle-based compartments regulated by a non-equilibrium chemical reaction network that converts activating agents. In this way, the compartments require a constant or periodic supply of activating agents to sustain themselves. Specifically, we use activating agents to condense carboxylates and phosphate esters into acyl phosphate-based lipids that form vesicles. These vesicles can only be sustained when condensing agents are present; without them, they decay. We demonstrate that the chemical reaction network can operate on prebiotic activating agents, opening the door to prebiotically plausible, self-sustainable protocells that compete for resources. In future work, such protocells should be endowed with a genotype, e.g., self-replicating RNA structures, to alter the protocell's behavior. Such protocells could enable Darwinian evolution in a prebiotically plausible chemical system.
AB - Lipids spontaneously assemble into vesicle-forming membranes. Such vesicles serve as compartments for even the simplest living systems. Vesicles have been extensively studied for constructing synthetic cells or as models for protocells—the cells hypothesized to have existed before life. These compartments exist almost always close to equilibrium. Life, however, exists out of equilibrium. In this work, we studied vesicle-based compartments regulated by a non-equilibrium chemical reaction network that converts activating agents. In this way, the compartments require a constant or periodic supply of activating agents to sustain themselves. Specifically, we use activating agents to condense carboxylates and phosphate esters into acyl phosphate-based lipids that form vesicles. These vesicles can only be sustained when condensing agents are present; without them, they decay. We demonstrate that the chemical reaction network can operate on prebiotic activating agents, opening the door to prebiotically plausible, self-sustainable protocells that compete for resources. In future work, such protocells should be endowed with a genotype, e.g., self-replicating RNA structures, to alter the protocell's behavior. Such protocells could enable Darwinian evolution in a prebiotically plausible chemical system.
KW - acyl phosphate
KW - chemically fueled self-assembly
KW - protocells
KW - self-sustaining compartments
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85196199508&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/anie.202406094
DO - 10.1002/anie.202406094
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85196199508
SN - 1433-7851
JO - Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English
JF - Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English
ER -