Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The construction of synthetic cells is one of the most ambitious goals of SB, and more
generally of biological science and technology. Firstly, it allows the study of structural and
dynamic (biochemical) self-organization of separated molecules into systems, shedding
light on the deepest scientific questions: how living systems emerged from nonliving
molecules. Probably, the most fascinating facet of this question is the reciprocal influence
between the parts (i.e. the molecules, at a lower hierarchical level) and the system (i.e. the
cell, at a higher hierarchical level), as we have shown by illustrating the theory of
autopoiesis, the various biochemical transformations inside lipid vesicles, and the
spontaneous formation of super-filled vesicles. Intriguingly, the complexity scale can be
expanded upward by introducing the concept of communities of systems (e.g. community
of cells). The establishment of synthetic cell
natural cell communication or synthetic
cell
synthetic cell communication is a possible future experimental target. Currently,
however, we are investigating the association of GVs in colonies, to model the origin of
primitive cell communities.
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This study is interesting because for the first time a scenario is
proposed where groups of cells rather than isolated ones are considered relevant to the
origin of life. This happens thanks to properties that emerge at their hierarchical level
(vesicle fusion, solute capture, enhanced permeability through the membrane of colony
vesicles), whereas the separated components (isolated vesicles, bridging agents), which are
at a lower hierarchical level, do not share these properties. Finally, we have seen that the
efforts for constructing cell models, mainly developed to answer questions on the origin of
life, have also produced a new kind of biotechnological approach, namely SSMC
technology. We believe that, when properly developed, this technology can become a
central subject in synthetic biology.
Acknowledgments
This work derived from our recent involvement in studies on the construction of semisynthetic minimal cells, funded
by the Sixth Framework EU Program (SYNTHCELLS: Approaches to the Bioengineering of Synthetic Minimal Cells
043359), HFSP (RGP0033/2007
275
C), ASI (I/015/07/0), PRIN2008 (2008FY7RJ4); and further expanded thanks to
networking initiatives such as SynBioNT(UK), and the COST Systems Chemistry action (CM0703).
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