Small-molecule autocatalysis drives compartment growth, competition and reproduction

• Published in: Nature chemistry 2024-01, Vol.16 (1), p.70-78
• Main Authors: Lu, Heng, Blokhuis, Alex, Turk-MacLeod, Rebecca, Karuppusamy, Jayaprakash, Franconi, Andrea, Woronoff, Gabrielle, Jeancolas, Cyrille, Abrishamkar, Afshin, Loire, Estelle, Ferrage, Fabien, Pelupessy, Philippe, Jullien, Ludovic, Szathmary, Eörs, Nghe, Philippe, Griffiths, Andrew D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/181/904; 639/638/904; Analytical Chemistry; Autocatalysis; Biochemistry; Catalysis; Chemical reactions; Chemical Sciences; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Competition; Diffusion; Droplets; Emulsions; Growth rate; Heredity; Inorganic Chemistry; Natural selection; Organic Chemistry; Origin of Life; Osmosis; Physical Chemistry; Reproduction; Shearing; Variation; Water
• ISSN: 1755-4330; 1755-4349
• DOI: 10.1038/s41557-023-01276-0

Sustained autocatalysis coupled to compartment growth and division is a key step in the origin of life, but an experimental demonstration of this phenomenon in an artificial system has previously proven elusive. We show that autocatalytic reactions within compartments—when autocatalysis, and reactant and solvent exchange outpace product exchange—drive osmosis and diffusion, resulting in compartment growth. We demonstrate, using the formose reaction compartmentalized in aqueous droplets in an emulsion, that compartment volume can more than double. Competition for a common reactant (formaldehyde) causes variation in droplet growth rate based on the composition of the surrounding droplets. These growth rate variations are partially transmitted after selective division of the largest droplets by shearing, which converts growth-rate differences into differences in droplet frequency. This shows how a combination of properties of living systems (growth, division, variation, competition, rudimentary heredity and selection) can arise from simple physical–chemical processes and may have paved the way for the emergence of evolution by natural selection. The coupling of autocatalysis to compartment growth and division is a key step in the origin of life. Now it has been shown that compartmentalizing the formose reaction in emulsion droplets leads to several crucial properties of living and evolving systems (growth, division, variation, competition, rudimentary heredity and selection).