Following the Growth and Division of Lipid Boundaries by Using Glass Microsphere-Supported Protocells

Abstract

Protocells are compartmented molecular networks which can be designed to study the origins of life. Glass microsphere-supported giant vesicles (MSGVs) are model protocells for which monodispersed glass beads are coated with a lipid bilayer thanks to avidin and biotinylated phospholipids. These supramolecular assemblies have proved to be extremely effective to understand certain phenomena related to the self-reproduction of protocells thanks to a series of intriguing experiments. First, the growth and division (G&D) of these giant vesicles was observed by epifluorescence and confocal microscopy when they were fed with fatty acids solutions at different feeding rates. Second, chemical analyses performed by a combination of GC-MS, UPLC-HRMS and phospholipid-specific assay, allowed to independently study the composition of the vesicles obtained after G&D.