Self-division of giant vesicles driven by an internal enzymatic reaction
Ylenia Miele, Zsófia Medveczky, Gábor Holló, Borbála Tegze, Imre Derényi, Zoltán Hórvölgyi, Emiliano Altamura, István Lagzi, Federico Rossi
Abstract
-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine) and oleic acid molecules. The enzymatic reaction increases the pH in the lumen of the vesicles, which concomitantly changes the protonation state of the oleic acid in the inner leaflet of the bilayer causing the removal of the membrane building blocks into the lumen of the vesicles thus decreasing the inner membrane area with respect to the outer one. This process coupled to the osmotic stress (responsible for the volume loss of the vesicles) leads to the division of a mother vesicle into two smaller daughter vesicles. These two processes must act in synergy; none of them alone can induce the division. Overall, our self-dividing system represents a step forward in the design and engineering of a complex autonomous model of synthetic cells.