title: Replicating vesicles as models of primitive cell growth and division.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Mass. General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Martin M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hanczyc
authors.forename: Jack W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Szostak
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D008561:Membrane Fusion; D008823:Micelles; D008954:Models, Biological; D000069497:Origin of Life
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008823:Micelles