Speaker
Description
In the 1920’s Oparin hypothesized that membrane free compartments formed by coacervation would have provided a viable route to compartmentalize prebiotic reactions as a precursor to the modern cell. Studies which support this hypothesis are limited in that the precise chemical composition and conditions on prebiotic earth remain a mystery. Despite this, using bottom-up approaches allows us to generate physically relevant protocell models in the lab. This provides a means to unravel the effect of compartmentalization by coacervation can have provided a selection pressure for facilitating the transition from a chemical world to a biological world.
Here, I will present strategies for the design and synthesis of protocell models based on liquid-liquid phase separation of oppositely charged components (coacervates) and describe how these compartments could be viable protocells models by bringing together peptides and RNA.
