Replicating vesicles as models of primitive cell growth and division.
Primitive cells, lacking the complex bio-machinery present in modern cells, would have had to rely on the self-organizing properties of their components and on interactions with their environment to achieve basic cellular functions such as growth and division. Many bilayer-membrane vesicles, depending on their composition and environment, can exhibit complex morphological changes such as growth, fusion, fission, budding, internal vesicle assembly and vesicle-surface interactions. The rich dynamic properties of these vesicles provide interesting models of how primitive cellular replication might have occurred in response to purely physical and chemical forces.
Hanczyc
Martin M
MM
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Mass. General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Szostak
Jack W
JW
D005075:Biological Evolution; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D008561:Membrane Fusion; D008823:Micelles; D008954:Models, Biological; D000069497:Origin of Life
D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008823:Micelles