Mimicking Cellular Metabolism in Artificial Cells: Universal Molecule Transport across the Membrane through Vesicle Fusion

Abstract

Mass transport across cell membranes is a primary process for cellular metabolism. For this purpose, electrostatically mediated membrane fusion is exploited to transport various small molecules including glucose-6-phosphate, isopropyl β-D-thiogalactoside, and macromolecules such as DNA plasmids from negatively charged large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) to positively charged giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs). After membrane fusion between these oppositely charged vesicles, molecules are transported into GUVs to trigger the NAD+ involved enzyme reaction, bacterial gene expression, and in vitro gene expression of green fluorescent protein from a DNA plasmid. The optimized charged lipid percentages are 10% for both positively charged GUVs and negatively charged LUVs to ensure the fusion process. The experimental results demonstrate a universal way for mass transport into the artificial cells through vesicle fusions, which paves a crucial step for the investigation of complicated cellular metabolism.

Light‐Harvesting Artificial Cells for the Generation of ATP and NADPH†

“…The thylakoid‐containing artificial cells were prepared using the water‐in‐oil (W/O) emulsion transfer method. [ 15 ] The cartoon is the representation of a thylakoid‐containing artificial cell (Figure 2b, left image). The typical fluorescence image of GUVs containing thylakoids is presented in Figure 2b (right image), where the red dots are thylakoids.…”

Synthetic Intracellular Environments: From Basic Science to Applications

“…Phospholipids are double-chained amphiphiles, which possess a hydrophilic phosphate ester head (in their thick membrane) and two hydrophobic acyl tails (in their internal aqueous reservoir) . Due to the biocompatibility of phospholipids, phospholipid vesicles , are one of the most common artificial cells; in addition, the size distribution of phospholipid vesicles is wide, ranging from nanometers to micrometers . Similar to phospholipids, fatty acids also have hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups, allowing them to form bilayers, vesicles, and micelles in water as well, but with a much simpler structure.…”

Parasites, Infections, and Inoculation in Synthetic Minimal Cells

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