Encapsulation of ferritin, ribosomes, and ribo-peptidic complexes inside liposomes: insights into the origin of metabolism.
Here we summarize the main results of our latest investigation on the spontaneous encapsulation of proteins (ferritin) and ribosomes inside lipid vesicles. We show that when vesicles form in a solution containing some macromolecules (even at low concentration), in contrast to the expectations, a few but measurable number of vesicles is able to capture a very high number of solutes, up to 60 times the external concentration. We also show preliminary evidences on the encapsulation of additional solutes (ribo-peptidic complexes, fluorescent proteins and enzymes), and shortly present our current approach aimed at exploiting this phenomenon. In particular, we would like to reveal how the formation of compartments can trigger effective intra-vesicle reactions starting from diluted solutions. Although the mechanistic details for this phenomenon are still missing, we claim that these new evidences are highly relevant for the origin of the first functional cells in primitive times.
Institut für Pharmazie, Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena, Lessingstrasse 8, 07743 Jena, Germany.
Tereza Pereira
TP
de Souza
Pasquale
P
Stano
Frank
F
Steiniger
Erica
E
D'Aguanno
Emiliano
E
Altamura
Alfred
A
Fahr
Pier Luigi
PL
Luisi
D005293:Ferritins / Q000737:chemistry*; D008081:Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*; D012270:Ribosomes / Q000737:chemistry*
D008081:Liposomes; D005293:Ferritins