A Chemical Model of Homeostasis

Advances in Minimal Cell Models: a New Approach to Synthetic Biology and Origin of Life

“…The ultimate goal of core-and-shell reproduction is the observation of SSMCs growth and division as it happens in natural cells, clearly with a reduced efficiency. Finally, it is possible to conceive compartimentalized molecular systems that display really complex dynamics such as homeostasis (for a simple example, see Zepik et al, 2001), sensing and communication (Gardner et al, 2009), energy production, control of genetic transcription, for example thanks to genetic circuitry (Noireaux et al, 2003;Kim & Winfree, 2011).…”

Special Issue: Abstracts From the 2008 Issol Meeting

“…Different chemical implementations in the test tube has been presented during years all based on surfactant self-assembling structures, as micelles (Bachman 1992), reverse micelles (Bachman 1992) and vesicles (Walde 1994) which, as recently emphasized, can be defined as autopoietic but not as living, since autopoiesis being the necessary, but not the necessary and sufficient, condition for life (Bitbol 2004). More recently, Zepik et al (Zepik 2001) successfully reported on the first experimental attempt to model chemical autopoietic structures in three different regimes: continuous growth, homeostasis and decay, by introducing a surfactant decay reaction in the well-known growth-division approach to vesicle selfreproduction. In this contribution a simple mechanism that reproduce the behaviors modeled by Zepik et al will presented and discuss.…”

Toward the engineering of minimal living cells

“…To our knowledge, only one experimental model for a homeostatic system has been described (Zepik et al, 2001). In this case, oleate vesicles are produced by the mechanism of Figure 4, while simultaneously an oxidative reaction destroys the vesicles (by operating on the double bond of the oleate molecule).…”

“…In this case, oleate vesicles are produced by the mechanism of Figure 4, while simultaneously an oxidative reaction destroys the vesicles (by operating on the double bond of the oleate molecule). A balance between these two competitive processes leads to a model of chemical homeostasis in spherical closed compartments (Zepik et al, 2001). …”

“…The fact that the reaction stops as soon as the limiting reagents are used up is no conceptual hurdle, as one can easily devise a continuous reactor system (as described for chemical homeostasis (Zepik et al, 2001)). This is a system in which both the precursor for the oleate vesicle reproduction, and the nucleotide substrates are continuously furnished from the outside.…”