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Nicolella Z, Okamoto Y, Watanabe NM, Thompson GL, Umakoshi H. Significance of in situ quantitative membrane property-morphology relation (QmPMR) analysis. SOFT MATTER 2024; 20:4935-4949. [PMID: 38873752 DOI: 10.1039/d4sm00253a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2024]
Abstract
Deformation of the cell membrane is well understood from the viewpoint of protein interactions and free energy balance. However, the various dynamic properties of the membrane, such as lipid packing and hydrophobicity, and their relationship with cell membrane deformation are unknown. Therefore, the deformation of 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) and oleic acid (OA) giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) was induced by heating and cooling cycles, and time-lapse analysis was conducted based on the membrane hydrophobicity and physical parameters of "single-parent" and "daughter" vesicles. Fluorescence ratiometric analysis by simultaneous dual-wavelength detection revealed the variation of different hydrophilic GUVs and enabled inferences of the "daughter" vesicle composition and the "parent" membrane's local composition during deformation; the "daughter" vesicle composition of OA was lower than that of the "parents", and lateral movement of OA was the primary contributor to the formation of the "daughter" vesicles. Thus, our findings and the newly developed methodology, named in situ quantitative membrane property-morphology relation (QmPMR) analysis, would provide new insights into cell deformation and accelerate research on both deformation and its related events, such as budding and birthing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zachary Nicolella
- Division of Chemical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.
| | - Yukihiro Okamoto
- Division of Chemical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.
| | - Nozomi Morishita Watanabe
- Division of Chemical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.
| | - Gary Lee Thompson
- Rowan University, Rowan Hall, Room 333 70 Sewell St., Ste. E Glassboro, NJ 08028, USA
| | - Hiroshi Umakoshi
- Division of Chemical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.
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2
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Kurisu M, Imai M. Concepts of a synthetic minimal cell: Information molecules, metabolic pathways, and vesicle reproduction. Biophys Physicobiol 2023; 21:e210002. [PMID: 38803330 PMCID: PMC11128301 DOI: 10.2142/biophysico.bppb-v21.0002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/29/2024] Open
Abstract
How do the living systems emerge from non-living molecular assemblies? What physical and chemical principles supported the process? To address these questions, a promising strategy is to artificially reconstruct living cells in a bottom-up way. Recently, the authors developed the "synthetic minimal cell" system showing recursive growth and division cycles, where the concepts of information molecules, metabolic pathways, and cell reproduction were artificially and concisely redesigned with the vesicle-based system. We intentionally avoided using the sophisticated molecular machinery of the biological cells and tried to redesign the cells in the simplest forms. This review focuses on the similarities and differences between the biological cells and our synthetic minimal cell concerning each concept of cells. Such comparisons between natural and artificial cells will provide insights on how the molecules should be assembled to create living systems to the wide readers in the field of synthetic biology, artificial cells, and protocells research. This review article is an extended version of the Japanese article "Growth and division of vesicles coupled with information molecules," published in SEIBUTSU-BUTSURI vol. 61, p. 378-381 (2021).
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Affiliation(s)
- Minoru Kurisu
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan
| | - Masayuki Imai
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan
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Toparlak Ö, Sebastianelli L, Egas Ortuno V, Karki M, Xing Y, Szostak JW, Krishnamurthy R, Mansy SS. Cyclophospholipids Enable a Protocellular Life Cycle. ACS NANO 2023; 17:23772-23783. [PMID: 38038709 PMCID: PMC10722605 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c07706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2023] [Revised: 11/21/2023] [Accepted: 11/22/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023]
Abstract
There is currently no plausible path for the emergence of a self-replicating protocell, because prevalent formulations of model protocells are built with fatty acid vesicles that cannot withstand the concentrations of Mg2+ needed for the function and replication of nucleic acids. Although prebiotic chelates increase the survivability of fatty acid vesicles, the resulting model protocells are incapable of growth and division. Here, we show that protocells made of mixtures of cyclophospholipids and fatty acids can grow and divide in the presence of Mg2+-citrate. Importantly, these protocells retain encapsulated nucleic acids during growth and division, can acquire nucleotides from their surroundings, and are compatible with the nonenzymatic extension of an RNA oligonucleotide, chemistry needed for the replication of a primitive genome. Our work shows that prebiotically plausible mixtures of lipids form protocells that are active under the conditions necessary for the emergence of Darwinian evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ö.
Duhan Toparlak
- Department
of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology, University of Trento, Via Sommarive 9, 38123 Povo, Trentino, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Sebastianelli
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Alberta, 11227 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
| | - Veronica Egas Ortuno
- Department
of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, United States
| | - Megha Karki
- Department
of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, United States
| | - Yanfeng Xing
- Department
of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Jack W. Szostak
- Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy
- Department
of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, United States
| | - Sheref S. Mansy
- Department
of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology, University of Trento, Via Sommarive 9, 38123 Povo, Trentino, Italy
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Alberta, 11227 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
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Kurisu M, Katayama R, Sakuma Y, Kawakatsu T, Walde P, Imai M. Synthesising a minimal cell with artificial metabolic pathways. Commun Chem 2023; 6:56. [PMID: 36977828 PMCID: PMC10050237 DOI: 10.1038/s42004-023-00856-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 03/30/2023] Open
Abstract
A "synthetic minimal cell" is considered here as a cell-like artificial vesicle reproduction system in which a chemical and physico-chemical transformation network is regulated by information polymers. Here we synthesise such a minimal cell consisting of three units: energy production, information polymer synthesis, and vesicle reproduction. Supplied ingredients are converted to energy currencies which trigger the synthesis of an information polymer, where the vesicle membrane plays the role of a template. The information polymer promotes membrane growth. By tuning the membrane composition and permeability to osmolytes, the growing vesicles show recursive reproduction over several generations. Our "synthetic minimal cell" greatly simplifies the scheme of contemporary living cells while keeping their essence. The chemical pathways and the vesicle reproduction pathways are well described by kinetic equations and by applying the membrane elasticity model, respectively. This study provides new insights to better understand the differences and similarities between non-living forms of matter and life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minoru Kurisu
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
| | - Ryosuke Katayama
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
| | - Yuka Sakuma
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
| | - Toshihiro Kawakatsu
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
| | - Peter Walde
- Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, Vladmir-Prelog-Weg 5, CH-8093, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Masayuki Imai
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan.
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Sabet FK, Bahrami A, Bahrami AH. Compartmentalizing and sculpting nanovesicles by phase-separated aqueous nanodroplets. RSC Adv 2022; 12:32035-32045. [PMID: 36380920 PMCID: PMC9642337 DOI: 10.1039/d2ra05855c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/02/2022] [Indexed: 02/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Phase-separated liquid droplets inside giant vesicles have been intensely studied as biomimetic model systems to understand cellular microcompartmentation and molecular crowding and sorting. On the nanoscale, however, how aqueous nanodroplets interact with and shape nanovesicles is poorly understood. We perform coarse-grained molecular simulations to explore the architecture of compartmentalized nanovesicles by phase-separated aqueous nanodroplets, and their morphological evolution under osmotic deflation. We show that phase separation of a biphasic liquid mixture can form both stable two-compartment and meta-stable multi-compartment nanovesicles. We identify morphological transitions of stable two-compartment nanovesicles between tube, sheet and cup morphologies, characterized by membrane asymmetry and phase-separation propensity between the aqueous phases. We demonstrate that the formation of local sheets and in turn cup-shaped nanovesicles is promoted by negative line tensions resulting from large separation propensities, an exclusive nanoscale phenomenon which is not expected for larger vesicles where energetic contributions of the line tensions are dominated by those of the membrane tensions. Despite their instability, we observe long-lived multi-compartment nanovesicles, such as nanotubules and branched tubules, whose prolonged lifetime is attributed to interfacial tensions and membrane asymmetry. Aqueous nanodroplets can thus form novel membrane nanostructures, crucial for cellular processes and forming cellular organelles on the nanoscale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Kazemi Sabet
- School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran North Kargar St. 14399-57131 Tehran Iran
| | - Arash Bahrami
- School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran North Kargar St. 14399-57131 Tehran Iran
| | - Amir H Bahrami
- UNAM-National Nanotechnology Research Center and Institute of Materials Science & Nanotechnology, Bilkent University Ankara Turkey
- Living Matter Physics, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization 37077 Göttingen Germany
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Imai M, Sakuma Y, Kurisu M, Walde P. From vesicles toward protocells and minimal cells. SOFT MATTER 2022; 18:4823-4849. [PMID: 35722879 DOI: 10.1039/d1sm01695d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
In contrast to ordinary condensed matter systems, "living systems" are unique. They are based on molecular compartments that reproduce themselves through (i) an uptake of ingredients and energy from the environment, and (ii) spatially and timely coordinated internal chemical transformations. These occur on the basis of instructions encoded in information molecules (DNAs). Life originated on Earth about 4 billion years ago as self-organised systems of inorganic compounds and organic molecules including macromolecules (e.g. nucleic acids and proteins) and low molar mass amphiphiles (lipids). Before the first living systems emerged from non-living forms of matter, functional molecules and dynamic molecular assemblies must have been formed as prebiotic soft matter systems. These hypothetical cell-like compartment systems often are called "protocells". Other systems that are considered as bridging units between non-living and living systems are called "minimal cells". They are synthetic, autonomous and sustainable reproducing compartment systems, but their constituents are not limited to prebiotic substances. In this review, we focus on both membrane-bounded (vesicular) protocells and minimal cells, and provide a membrane physics background which helps to understand how morphological transformations of vesicle systems might have happened and how vesicle reproduction might be coupled with metabolic reactions and information molecules. This research, which bridges matter and life, is a great challenge in which soft matter physics, systems chemistry, and synthetic biology must take joined efforts to better understand how the transformation of protocells into living systems might have occurred at the origin of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masayuki Imai
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
| | - Yuka Sakuma
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
| | - Minoru Kurisu
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
| | - Peter Walde
- Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 5, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
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