Question

Controlling secretion in artificial cells with a membrane and gate

Answer 1

The assembly of channel proteins into vesicle membranes is a useful strategy to control activities of vesicle-based systems. Here, we developed a membrane AND gate that responds to both a fatty acid and a pore-forming channel protein to induce the release of encapsulated cargo. We explored how membrane composition affects the functional assembly of α-hemolysin into phospholipid vesicles as a function of oleic acid content and α-hemolysin concentration. We then showed that we could induce α-hemolysin assembly when we added oleic acid micelles to a specific composition of phospholipid vesicles. Finally, we demonstrated that our membrane AND gate could be coupled to a gene expression system. Our study provides a new method to control the temporal dynamics of vesicle permeability by controlling when the functional assembly of a channel protein into synthetic vesicles occurs. Furthermore, a membrane AND gate that utilizes membrane-associating biomolecules introduces a new way to implement Boolean logic that should complement genetic logic circuits and ultimately enhance the capabilities of artificial cellular systems.

Keywords: artificial cell; cell-free expression; membrane logic gate; protein−membrane interactions.

Answer 2

$\huge {\red {\sf {\underline {\underline {Answer}}}:-}}$

Researchers have created an artificial plastic cell containing cell organelles capable of carrying out the basic chemical reactions required in cell functioning. It is made by taking a mixture of chemicals and sealing them in a drop of water. The water droplet was then coated with a polymer layer to act as a manufactured cell wall.

$\huge\dag\sf\green{By \: Divyanshu}$