PROTOCELL ASSEMBLY

A protocell can be defined as the simplest self replicating arftificial entity. Protocells have been hypothesised to have been the ancestors of modern day cells. In vitro synthesis of such structures would yield much information with regard to biological evolution and the origins of life on Earth. How could such cells from from prebiotic molecules? How could information be passed from one generation to the next? What mechanism would have allowed functional evolution of protocells to occur?

In order to design a protocell we are using lipid chemistry, molecular biology and biophysical characterisation techniques. Our approach is multipronged and we are testing various models involving mineral surfaces, biomolecule entrapment in fatty acid vesicles and template assisted nucleic acid polymerisation.

Figure 1. A model protocell. A lipid bilayer vesicle entraps small biomolecules which can then undergo template assisted polymerisation within the vesicle. Peptide based receptors allow signal transduction to occur between the environment and the interior of the protocell.

PhD student - Orr Yarkoni