Spontaneous Membranization in a Silk-Based Coacervate Protocell Model.

Zhuping Yin, Liangfei Tian, Avinash J Patil, Mei Li, Stephen Mann

Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) 2022 Apr 19

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Molecularly crowded coacervate micro-droplets are useful protocell constructs but the absence of a physical membrane limits their application as cytomimetic models. Auxiliary surface-active agents have been harnessed to stabilize the coacervate droplets by irreversible shell formation but endogenous processes of reversible membranization have received minimal attention. Herein, we describe a dynamic alginate/silk coacervate-based protocell model in which membrane-less droplets are reversibly reconfigured and inflated into semipermeable coacervate vesicles by spontaneous self-organization of amphiphilic silk polymers at the droplet surface under non-neutral charge conditions in the absence of auxiliary agents. We show that membranization can be reversibly controlled endogenously by programming the pH within the protocells using an antagonistic enzyme system such that structural reconfigurations in the protocell microstructure are coupled to the trafficking of water-soluble solutes. Our results open new perspectives in the design of hybrid protocell models with dynamical structural properties. © 2022 The Authors. Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Citation

Zhuping Yin, Liangfei Tian, Avinash J Patil, Mei Li, Stephen Mann. Spontaneous Membranization in a Silk-Based Coacervate Protocell Model. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English). 2022 Apr 19;61(17):e202202302