Vincent Noireaux et al 2005 Phys. Biol. 2 P1 doi:10.1088/1478-3975/2/3/P01
Toward an artificial cell based on gene expression in vesicles
Vincent Noireaux1, Roy Bar-Ziv2, Jeremy Godefroy1, Hanna Salman1 and Albert Libchaber1
Show affiliationsPERSPECTIVE
We present a new experimental approach to build an artificial cell using the translation machinery of a cell-free expression system as the hardware and a DNA synthetic genome as the software. This approach, inspired by the self-replicating automata of von Neumann, uses cytoplasmic extracts, encapsulated in phospholipid vesicles, to assemble custom-made genetic circuits to develop the functions of a minimal cell. Although this approach can find applications, especially in biotechnology, the primary goal is to understand how a DNA algorithm can be designed to build an operating system that has some of the properties of life. We provide insights on this cell-free approach as well as new results to transform step by step a long-lived vesicle bioreactor into an artificial cell. We show how the green fluorescent protein can be anchored to the membrane and we give indications of a possible insertion mechanism of integral membrane proteins. With vesicles composed of different phospholipids, the fusion protein alpha-hemolysin-eGFP can be expressed to reveal patterns on the membrane. The specific degradation complex ClpXP from E. coli is introduced to create a sink for the synthesized proteins. Perspectives and subsequent limitations of this approach are discussed.
- PACS
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- Dates
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Issue 3 (September 2005)
Received 24 June 2005, accepted for publication 15 August 2005
Published 15 September 2005
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Toward an artificial cell based on gene expression in vesicles
Vincent Noireaux et al 2005 Phys. Biol. 2 P1
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