Dynamics of Growth and Form in Prebiotic Vesicles.
Open accessAbstract
The growth, form, and division of prebiotic vesicles, membraneous bags of fluid of varying components and shapes is hypothesized to have served as the substrate for the origin of life. The dynamics of these out-of-equilibrium structures is controlled by physicochemical processes that include the intercalation of amphiphiles into the membrane, fluid flow across the membrane, and elastic deformations of the membrane. To understand prebiotic vesicular forms and their dynamics, we construct a minimal model that couples membrane growth, deformation, and fluid permeation, ultimately couched in terms of two dimensionless parameters that characterize the relative rate of membrane growth and the membrane permeability. Numerical simulations show that our model captures the morphological diversity seen in extant precursor mimics of cellular life, and might provide simple guidelines for the synthesis of these complex shapes from simple ingredients.
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When membrane growth and permeability are coupled to bending energy, a rich space of great morphological diversity is found.
“When membrane growth and permeability are coupled to bending energy, a rich space of great morphological diversity is found [165].”
From Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems (2024) · cites this paper as [165]
We did not observe scission, consistent with the presence of an energy barrier.
“While some filaments exhibited branching or pearling, we did not observe scission, consistent with the presence of an energy barrier”
From Genetic requirements for cell division in a genomically minimal cell (2020) · cites this paper as Ruiz-Herrero et al., 2019
Cites
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Semipermeable lipid bilayers exhibit diastereoselectivity favoring ribose
Sacerdote, M. G., & Szostak, J. W. (2005) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0408440102 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
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Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems
Solé, R., Kempes, C. P., Corominas-Murtra, B., De Domenico, M., Kolchinsky, A., Lachmann, M., Libby, E., Saavedra, S., Smith, E., & Wolpert, D. (2024) · Interface Focus · doi:10.1098/rsfs.2024.0010 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
“When membrane growth and permeability are coupled to bending energy, a rich space of great morphological diversity is found [165].”
BackgroundGenetic requirements for cell division in a genomically minimal cell
Pelletier, J. F., Sun, L., Wise, K. S., Assad-Garcia, N., Karas, B. J., Deerinck, T. J., Ellisman, M. H., Mershin, A., Gershenfeld, N., Chuang, R.-Y., et al. (2020) · bioRxiv / Cell · doi:10.1101/2020.10.07.326892
- Authors
- Ruiz-Herrero, T., Fai, T. G., & Mahadevan, L.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Venue
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 2019-07-19
- Volume
- 123
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 038102-038102
- ISSN
- 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
- 1079-7114
- OpenAlex
- W2909569332
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 2.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Physical Review Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
- Funders
- Fundación Ramón Areces
- National Science Foundation (DMS-1502851)
- Simons Collaboration
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Keywords
- origin of life, membrane growth, membrane deformation, fluid permeation, membrane division, vesicle morphology, nonequilibrium dynamics, minimal models
- MeSH terms
- Chemistry, Physical, Models, Chemical, Transport Vesicles, Prebiotics
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