Mixed fatty acid-phospholipid protocell networks

Põldsalu, Inga; Köksal, Elif Senem; Gözen, İrep

doi:10.1039/d1cp03832j

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…However, this model suffers that ingredients can enter and exit droplets freely, and one prefers a protocell recipient that is made of a lumen that can indeed encapsulate ingredients but is also closed by a lipid bilayer. [30,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] Interestingly, recent works have shown that vesicles can be produced from double (water-in-oilin-water droplets) emulsions. [58][59][60][61][62][63] These were prepared by microfluidics and this allows encapsulating cargoes in their lumen.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Double Emulsion Droplets as a Plausible Step to Fatty Acid Protocells

Douliez

2023

Small Methods

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It is assumed that life originated on the Earth from vesicles made of fatty acids. These amphiphiles are the simplest chemicals, which can be present in the prebiotic soup, capable of self‐assembling into compartments mimicking modern cells. Production of fatty acid vesicles is widely studied, as their growing and division. However, how prebiotic chemicals require to further yield living cells encapsulated within protocells remains unclear. Here, one suggests a scenario based on recent studies, which shows that phospholipid vesicles can form from double emulsions affording facile encapsulation of cargos. In these works, water‐in‐oil‐in‐water droplets are produced by microfluidics, having dispersed lipids in the oil. Dewetting of the oil droplet leaves the internal aqueous droplet covered by a lipid bilayer, entrapping cargos. In this review, formation of fatty acid protocells is briefly reviewed, together with the procedure for preparing double emulsions and vesicles from double emulsion and finally, it is proposed that double emulsion droplets formed in the deep ocean where undersea volcano expulsed materials, with fatty acids (under their carboxylic form) and alkanols as the oily phase, entrapping hydrosoluble prebiotic chemicals in a double emulsion droplet core. Once formed, double emulsion droplets can move up to the surface, where an increase of pH, variation of pressure and/or temperature may have allowed dewetting of the oily droplet, leaving a fatty acid vesicular protocell with encapsulated prebiotic materials.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Double Emulsion Droplets as a Plausible Step to Fatty Acid Protocells

Douliez

2023

Small Methods

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“…21 Membranes composed of unsaturated lipids are revealed to exhibit enantioselective permeability to sugars, simple carbohydrates, 22 and dipeptides. 23 Modulating the physical properties of the membrane by lipids made of unsaturated chains, 23 short chain length lipids, 24 branched lipids, 25 and single chain amphiphiles 26,27 can also impart permeability to vesicles.…”

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confidence: 99%

Engineering semi-permeable giant liposomes

Radhakrishnan,

Nair,

Nandi

et al. 2023

Chem. Commun.

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Hybrid Protocells Based on Coacervate‐Templated Fatty Acid Vesicles Combine Improved Membrane Stability with Functional Interior Protocytoplasm

Lee,

Pir Cakmak,

Booth

et al. 2024

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Prebiotically‐plausible compartmentalization mechanisms include membrane vesicles formed by amphiphile self‐assembly and coacervate droplets formed by liquid–liquid phase separation. Both types of structures form spontaneously and can be related to cellular compartmentalization motifs in today's living cells. As prebiotic compartments, they have complementary capabilities, with coacervates offering excellent solute accumulation and membranes providing superior boundaries. Herein, protocell models constructed by spontaneous encapsulation of coacervate droplets by mixed fatty acid/phospholipid and by purely fatty acid membranes are described. Coacervate‐supported membranes form over a range of coacervate and lipid compositions, with membrane properties impacted by charge–charge interactions between coacervates and membranes. Vesicles formed by coacervate‐templated membrane assembly exhibit profoundly different permeability than traditional fatty acid or blended fatty acid/phospholipid membranes without a coacervate interior, particularly in the presence of magnesium ions (Mg2+). While fatty acid and blended membrane vesicles are disrupted by the addition of Mg2+, the corresponding coacervate‐supported membranes remain intact and impermeable to externally‐added solutes. With the more robust membrane, fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis, which is commonly used for cell viability assays, can be performed inside the protocell model due to the simple diffusion of FDA and then following with the coacervate‐mediated abiotic hydrolysis to fluorescein.

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Mixed fatty acid-phospholipid protocell networks

Abstract: This study shows the autonomous transformation of fatty acid-containing lipid reservoirs to model protocell networks on solid substrates.

Cited by 8 publications

References 35 publications

Double Emulsion Droplets as a Plausible Step to Fatty Acid Protocells

Double Emulsion Droplets as a Plausible Step to Fatty Acid Protocells

Engineering semi-permeable giant liposomes

Hybrid Protocells Based on Coacervate‐Templated Fatty Acid Vesicles Combine Improved Membrane Stability with Functional Interior Protocytoplasm

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