Sprecher
Beschreibung
T-Y Dora Tang
Department of Synthetic Biology, University of Saarland, Campus B2.2., Saarbrucken, 66123, Saarland, Germany.
Coacervates provide a plausible route to primitive compartmentalisation. It has been proposed that coacervates, can serve as a compartment to host prebiotic reactions during the Origin of Life [1]. There has been progress in uncovering new chemical routes to the synthesis of key biological molecules and metabolites. In parallel, it is well established that key biological molecules and metabolites can form coacervates. Despite this there has been little focus on the effect of molecular flux on coacervate properties.
Here, we focus on coupling compartmentalisation with reactions and show how molecular flux can tune the material properties of the dispersion and the phenotype of coacervate droplets. Our systems are primary examples of minimal active matter that are regulated by molecular flux.
[1] Oparin, A. I. The Origin of Life. 1938 New York. NY: Dover Publications (transl. with annotations by S. Morgulis Macmillan republished in 1953, 1965 and 2003).
