An Oil Droplet Division–Fusion Cycle

Caschera, Filippo; Rasmussen, Steen; Hanczyc, Martin M.

doi:10.1002/cplu.201200275

Cited by 53 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…[139,140] The versatility of synthetic reactions was also used to augment phospholipid vesicles and make them grow [99,100] as noted above. This aspect has been already partially addressed by the demonstration of life-like properties of dichloromethane and nitrobenzene oil droplets, which grow, divide, and partition cargo.…”

Section: Synthetic Chemistry Enables New Potential Approaches For Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This aspect has been already partially addressed by the demonstration of life-like properties of dichloromethane and nitrobenzene oil droplets, which grow, divide, and partition cargo. [139,140] The versatility of synthetic reactions was also used to augment phospholipid vesicles and make them grow [99,100] as noted above. With respect to this, advances in the preparation of functional amphiphilic block copolymers provide powerful synthetic tools for the engineering of artificial compartments that could grow upon stimulation by light, temperature, or pH.…”

Section: Synthetic Chemistry Enables New Potential Approaches For Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Directed Growth of Biomimetic Microcompartments

et al. 2019

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twilight zone), it is widely recognized that the formation of micro-and nanocompartments is an essential ingredient of all forms of life. This spatial constraint serves numerous purposes, including the segregation and protection from the environment (to allow for individuality and maintenance), the establishment of gradients (to enable and make use of outof-equilibrium conditions), and the role of 2D and 3D confinement for self-organization phenomena, all of which serve to overcome the overall "dilution problem." In order to fulfill another cornerstone of life-proliferation-compartments also need to change with time by fusion, growth, and division. In particular, the dynamic growth of compartments is an essential prerequisite for enabling selfreproduction as a fundamental life process, both in simplistic systems such as droplets or fatty acid-based vesicles, as well as for lipid vesicle compartments with membranes that resemble the biomembranes of today's cells. In this context, we argue that growth deserves more attention, not only because growth precedes division but also because of the difficulty to realize growth compared to division, especially in the case of lipid vesicles, where budding and division has been observed in response to various factors. This growth aspect has also been recognized in basic theoretical models of living systems such as Ganti's chemoton, [1,2] for which the increase of membrane area (referred to as membrane formation) was postulated to be one of three subsystems, characterizing living entities from a chemical viewpoint. The autopoietic theory was also centered on the membrane but focused on self-maintenance rather than on (self-)reproduction. [3,4] However, such a self-maintaining system could also enter a self-reproduction mode, manifested by growth, if homeostatic misbalance leads to excess membrane formation as shown in a thought experiment by Luisi. [3] In this progress report, we review the existing approaches for growth of compartments in the context of bottom-up synthetic biology and protobiology. We consider mainly micrometer-sized compartments due to their characteristic cellular dimensions; this feature also ensures that the area and curvature of the interface or the bounding membrane has less influence on the enclosed solution. Microcompartments of various origins and chemistries have been used as protocell models, and many studies have addressed growth and division simultaneously in an ambitious effort to mimic self-reproduction. Contemporary biological cells are sophisticated and highly compartmentalized. Compartmentalization is an essential principle of prebiotic life as well as a key feature in bottom-up synthetic biology research.In this review, the dynamic growth of compartments as an essential prerequisite for enabling self-reproduction as a fundamental life process is discussed. The micrometer-sized compartments are focused on due to their cellular dimensions. Two types of compartments are considered, membraneless droplets and membrane-bound microcompartments. Gr...

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Section: Synthetic Chemistry Enables New Potential Approaches For Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Synthetic Chemistry Enables New Potential Approaches For Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Directed Growth of Biomimetic Microcompartments

et al. 2019

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“…Whilst these studies have advanced the design and construction of novel protocell models with bespoke structures,f unctions,a nd behaviors,i ncorporating autonomic properties into these synthetic micro-architectures remains ac onsiderable challenge. [15] This raises the question of whether the unique dynamics of certain inanimate systems ("active matter") could be used to model transitions to alifelike state in which information, chemical metabolism, and self-organization are integrated and recursively exploited to generate asustained flux of energy and exchange of matter.In this regard, recent studies on oleic acid-based vesicles or oilin-water droplets prepared under non-equilibrium conditions have shown an astonishing range of life-like behaviors [16] including movement, [17] division, [18] fusion, [19] and chemotaxis [20] depending on the droplet composition, rate of interfacial molecular reactions,presence of Marangoni instabilities,and imbalance in surface tension initiated by symmetry breaking.…”

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confidence: 99%

Autonomic Behaviors in Lipase‐Active Oil Droplets

et al. 2018

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Developing self-fueled micro-reactor droplets with programmable autonomic behaviors provides as tep towards smart liquid dispersions comprising motile microscale objects. Herein, we prepare aqueous suspensions of lipase-coated oil globules comprising am ixture of at riglyceride substrate (tributyrin, 1,2,3-tributylglycerol) and al ow-density oil (polydimethylsiloxane,P DMS) and describe ar ange of active behaviors based on controlled enzyme-mediated consumption of individual droplets under non-equilibrium conditions. Encapsulation of the lipase-coated lipid/PDMS droplets into amodel protocell as energy-richsub-compartments is demonstrated as an internalizedm echanism for activating protocell buoyancy.T aken together,o ur results highlight opportunities for the regulation of autonomic behavior in enzyme-powered oil droplets and provide an ew platform for increasing the functionality and energization of synthetic protocells.

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“…Since it is visible to human eye, self-propelled motion of the millimeter-sized oil droplets on the surface of aqueous solutions has been reported by many researchers [24,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Recently, their divisions, fusions, and morphological changes have also been described.…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Remarksmentioning

confidence: 98%

Self-Propelled Motion of Micrometer-Sized Oil Droplets in Aqueous Solution of Surfactant

Banno¹,

Toyota²,

Asakura³

2017

Properties and Uses of Microemulsions

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When an immiscible oil is dispersed in an aqueous solution of a surfactant, emulsions consisting of various-sized oil droplets are generated. Micrometer-sized oil droplets exhibit exotic dynamics such as self-propelled motion in the surfactant solution. Transfer of the surfactant from the aqueous solution phase to the oil droplets through their interface leads to the self-propelled motion in a far-from-equilibrium condition. In this chapter, we demonstrate the observation methods of the self-propelled motion of micrometer-sized oil droplets using phase-contrast, polarized, and fluorescence microscopes and discuss their motion mechanism. Since the generated self-assemblies in micrometer-sized droplet systems are difficult to be identified by spectroscopic methods, the mechanisms of their self-propelled motion have not been clarified. When they are fully understood from nano-to microscale, these findings may be useful to develop not only more stable emulsion systems but also droplet-type analysis systems at the micrometer scale that can carry out reaction, analysis, and detection automatically without the need for an external force.

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An Oil Droplet Division–Fusion Cycle

Cited by 53 publications

References 28 publications

Directed Growth of Biomimetic Microcompartments

Directed Growth of Biomimetic Microcompartments

Autonomic Behaviors in Lipase‐Active Oil Droplets

Self-Propelled Motion of Micrometer-Sized Oil Droplets in Aqueous Solution of Surfactant

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