Cover Picture: The Minimal Size of Liposome-Based Model Cells Brings about a Remarkably Enhanced Entrapment and Protein Synthesis (ChemBioChem 6/2009)

The cover picture shows the concept of semisynthetic cell construction by co‐ entrapping DNA, enzymes, ribosomes, tRNAs, and small compounds (amino acids, NTPs, etc.) within a lipid vesicle. In order to be able to synthesize a protein, all components of the translation–transcription machinery must b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology 2009-04, Vol.10 (6), p.945-945
Main Authors: Pereira de Souza, Tereza, Stano, Pasquale, Luisi, Pier Luigi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
compartmentation
liposomes
minimal cells
origin of life
synthetic biology
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The cover picture shows the concept of semisynthetic cell construction by co‐ entrapping DNA, enzymes, ribosomes, tRNAs, and small compounds (amino acids, NTPs, etc.) within a lipid vesicle. In order to be able to synthesize a protein, all components of the translation–transcription machinery must be present in the compartment, which is formed spontaneously by lipid self‐assembly. Defined as cells containing the minimal and sufficient number of components to be defined as “alive”, minimal cells have recently become one of the most challenging and attractive goals of synthetic biology. The minimal size of protein‐synthesizing liposomes, as determined in this study, is around 100 nm (radius). In the background, electronmicrographs of ferritin‐containing vesicles (top) and self‐reproducing vesicles (bottom) are shown. The self‐reproduction of minimal cells is one of the challenging goals to be achieved by the semisynthetic approach. For further details, see the article by P. L. Luisi et al. on p. 1056 ff. magnified image
ISSN:1439-4227
1439-7633
DOI:10.1002/cbic.200990020