Experimental Models of Primitive Cellular Compartments: Encapsulation, Growth, and Division
Abstract
The clay montmorillonite is known to catalyze the polymerization of RNA from activated ribonucleotides. Here we report that montmorillonite accelerates the spontaneous conversion of fatty acid micelles into vesicles. Clay particles often become encapsulated in these vesicles, thus providing a pathway for the prebiotic encapsulation of catalytically active surfaces within membrane vesicles. In addition, RNA adsorbed to clay can be encapsulated within vesicles. Once formed, such vesicles can grow by incorporating fatty acid supplied as micelles and can divide without dilution of their contents by extrusion through small pores. These processes mediate vesicle replication through cycles of growth and division. The formation, growth, and division of the earliest cells may have occurred in response to similar interactions with mineral particles and inputs of material and energy.
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We thank A. Keefe, P. L. Luisi, B. Seelig, P.-A. Monnard, I. Chen, K. Ashtiani-Salehi, and A. Luptak for their helpful comments on the manuscript and P. L. Luisi for helpful discussions and communication of results before publication. This work was supported by grants from the Human Frontier Science Program and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. M.M.H. was supported by an NIH National Research Service Award. S.M.F. was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. J.W.S. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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Published In
Science
Volume 302 | Issue 5645
24 October 2003
24 October 2003
Copyright
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 31 July 2003
Accepted: 24 September 2003
Published in print: 24 October 2003
Notes
Supporting Online Material
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/302/5645/618/DC1
Materials and Methods
Figs. S1 to S4
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