Towards Design of Self‐Organizing Biomimetic Systems

to assemble astonishing pieces of a complicated puzzle, and realized that further advancement requires input from multiple branches of science, not just biology as the primary life science. Detailed hypotheses have been established about the different scenarios of the emergence of life, including the "RNA world," [1] the "lipid world," [2] "replicator first," [3] "metabolism first," [4][5][6] and others. Although the origin of life is still surrounded by many open questions, our understanding of chemical, physicochemical, and biochemical processes possibly involved in the ancient events preceding Darwinian evolution has seen much progress. We have come a long way from Leduc's physicochemical, inorganic matter-centered view on the beginning of the evolution, yet the matter of the transition from nonliving to living matter still remains largely unsolved, and one of the great scientific problems of our time.The phylogenetic tree of different living domains reflects that life has evolved from simple to more complex structures, i.e., from single-to multicellular organisms. The oldest fossil evidence dating back 3.5 Gy (billion years) comes from stromatolites, [7][8][9][10] microorganismal residues in sedimentary rocks. [11] There appears to be a gap of knowledge regarding the period of evolution between the first primitive hypothetical cells and the fossilized ancient bacteria, which can be considered as an already advanced form of life. [12] It is highly likely that intermediate primitive cell precursors preceded the single-cell organisms. The hypothetical prebiotic structures that were the stepping stone to first self-sustaining living cells are commonly termed "protocells." The possibility of a strong link between the formation of protocells and the origin of life can today be reasonably assumed.One cannot easily proceed in the context of the evolution of cell-based organisms without briefly illuminating the concept of life as we know it on our planet. Over time, different requirements have been proposed for an entity to be considered alive. According to Tibor Ganti's chemoton model, [13] a protocell contains three autocatalytic subsystems: a membrane subsystem that keeps the components together and intact, a metabolic subsystem that captures energy and material resources, and an information subsystem that processes and transfers heritable information to progeny. To be considered alive, these subsystems must be unified and function co-operatively for the survival and evolution of the supersystem. Pohorille and Deamer suggested a modified set of 7 criteria related to the chemoton. [14] At about the same time, Oro defined the requirements by 10 characteristic features. [15] Despite their differences, these descriptions align well with NASA's broader definition of life: "a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution."The origin of life is still one of humankind's great mysteries. At the transition between nonliving and living matter, protocells, initially featureless aggregates of abiotic matter, ga...

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“…[303] Similar models incorporating basic metabolism into protocell compartments have been established. [304][305][306]…”

Section: Protocells In Silicomentioning

confidence: 99%

Protocells: Milestones and Recent Advances

Gözen

Köksal

Põldsalu

et al. 2022

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“…Experimentally, biologists suggest various robust model biological objects: in vitro cell models [14], biofilms [15], algae [16], yeast [17], seeds [18], etc. It is interesting that the synthetic materials have programmable capabilities of biological objects: biomimetic information processing [19,20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical Systems for Life Science

Nikolaev¹,

Ryzhkov²,

Gershenson³

et al. 2021

Rev Adv Mater Tech

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The use of dynamic, adaptive materials with feedback control is a tendency of the past decade. Life sciences and medicine require materials with the controlled and responsive assembly of various components on the scales from molecular to macroscopic and even robotics. The main idea of this review is the use of synthetic systems as regulatory networks that facilitate the integration of chemical and biological materials. The synthetic systems, which are inspired by biochemical regulatory networks, help synthetic material to adapt to environmentand to interact with living matter cooperatively. The first step in realizing this concept is designing simple model systems. The simplicity means that the system should contain a minimal number of components but should be robust and sustainable to perform the required functions through logic operations and feedback loops. Here we suggest specific examples of robust systems for the selected functionality: compartmentalized signaling cascades, computation with light-induced chemical gradients andadvanced biomimetic mixed organic-inorganic materials, and self-regulation in chemical-biological systems. The main challenges for the given examples are discussed, and future prospects of logic operation with chemical systems are provided.

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Towards Design of Self‐Organizing Biomimetic Systems

Cited by 2 publications

References 50 publications

Protocells: Milestones and Recent Advances

Protocells: Milestones and Recent Advances

Chemical Systems for Life Science

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