title: Positive roles of compartmentalization in internal reactions.
abstract: Recently, many researchers have attempted to construct artificial cell models using a bottom-up approach in which various biochemical reactions that involve a defined set of molecules are reconstructed in cell-like compartments, such as liposomes and water-in-oil droplets. In many of these studies, the cell-like compartments have acted only as containers for the encapsulated biochemical reactions, whereas other studies have indicated that compartmentalization improves the rates and yields of these reactions. Here, we introduce two ways in which compartmentalization can improve internal reactions: the isolation effect and the condensation effect. These positive effects of compartmentalization might have played an important role in the genesis of the first primitive cell on early Earth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan; Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Norikazu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ichihashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan; Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan; Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. Electronic address: yomo@ist.osaka-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yomo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058045:Artificial Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D055162:Biocatalysis; D006801:Humans; D008081:Liposomes / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D008081:Liposomes