Internal lipid synthesis and vesicle growth as a step toward self-reproduction of the minimal cell

One of the major properties of the semi-synthetic minimal cell, as a model for early living cells, is the ability to self-reproduce itself, and the reproduction of the boundary layer or vesicle compartment is part of this process. A minimal bio-molecular mechanism based on the activity of one single enzyme, the FAS-B (Fatty Acid Synthase) Type I enzyme from Brevibacterium ammoniagenes, is encapsulated in 1-palmitoyl-2oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (POPC) liposomes to control lipid synthesis. Consequently molecules of palmitic acid released from the FAS catalysis, within the internal lumen, move toward the membrane compartment and become incorporated into the phospholipid bilayer. As a result the vesicle membranes change in lipid composition and liposome growth can be monitored. Here we report the first experiments showing vesicles growth by catalysis of one enzyme only that produces cell boundary from within. This is the prototype of the simplest autopoietic minimal cell

Microbial production of long-chain n-alkanes: Implication for interpreting sedimentary leaf wax signals

Relative distributions as well as compound-specific carbon and hydrogen isotope ratios of long-chain C-25 to C-33 n-alkanes in sediments provide important paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental information. These compounds in aquatic sediments are generally attributed to leaf waxes produced by higher plants. However, whether microbes, such as fungi and bacteria, can make a significant contribution to sedimentary long-chain n-alkanes is uncertain, with only scattered reports in the early 1960s to 1970s that microbes can produce long-chain n-alkanes. Given the rapidly expanding importance of leaf waxes in paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental studies, the impact of microbial contribution to long-chain n-alkanes in sediments must be fully addressed. In this study, we performed laboratory incubation of peat-land soils under both anaerobic and aerobic conditions in the absence of light with deuterium-enriched water over 1.5 years and analyzed compound-specific hydrogen isotopic ratios of n-alkanes. Under aerobic conditions, we find n-alkanes of different chain length display variable degrees of hydrogen isotopic enrichments, with short-chain (C-18-C-21) n-alkanes showing the greatest enrichment, followed by long-chain "leaf wax" (C-27-C-31) n-alkanes, and minimal or no enrichment for mid-chain (C-22-C-25) n-alkanes. In contrast, only the shorter chain (C-18 and C-19) n-alkanes display appreciable isotopic enrichment under anaerobic conditions. The degrees of isotopic enrichment for individual n-alkanes allow for a quantitative assessment of microbial contributions to n-alkanes. Overall our results show the microbial contribution to long-chain n-alkanes can reach up to 0.1% per year in aerobic conditions. For shorter chain n-alkanes, up to 2.5% per year could be produced by microbes in aerobic and anaerobic conditions respectively. Our results indicate that prolonged exposure to aerobic conditions can lead to substantial accumulation of microbially derived long-chain n-alkanes in sediments while original n-alkanes of leaf wax origin are degraded; hence caution must be exercised when interpreting sedimentary records of long-chain n-alkanes, including chain length distributions and isotopic ratios. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Formamide Dehydration and Condensation on Acidic Montmorillonite: Mechanistic Insights from Ab-Initio Periodic Simulations

International audienceFormamide (NH2CHO) is a molecule of extraordinary relevance as prebiotic precursor of many biological building blocks. Its dehydration reaction, which could take place during the Archean Era, leads to the production of HCN, the fundamental brick of DNA/RNA nitrogenous bases. Mineral surfaces could have played a crucial role in activating biological processes which in gas phase would have too high activation barriers to occur, thus allowing the event cascade, which finally led to the formation of biological macromolecules. In the present work we studied the dehydration process of formamide (NH2CHO → HCN + H2O) as catalyzed by a surface of acid montmorillonite. In this surface, a silicon atom has been substituted by an aluminium one, thus generating a negative charge that is compensated by an acidic proton on the top of the surface. This proton should, in principle, help the formamide dehydration. However, our results indicate that this particular acidic surface does not exert an efficient catalytic behavior in the decomposition of formamide