Engineering Synthetic Cells through Module Integration and Evolution

Life, the most complex and admirable machine that one could think of has evolved over billions of years to display a beautiful variety of mechanisms that keep cells adapting, self-maintaining, reproducing, and evolving. If we think about it, what is this magic? What are the mechanisms behind life’s origins and wonderful coordination? Attracted...

Gene-Directed FtsZ Ring Assembly Generates Constricted Liposomes with Stable Membrane Necks

Mimicking bacterial cell division in well-defined cell-free systems has the potential to elucidate the minimal set of proteins required for cytoskeletal formation, membrane constriction, and final abscission. Membrane-anchored FtsZ polymers are often regarded as a sufficient system to realize this chain of events. By using purified FtsZ and...

Clonal Amplification-Enhanced Gene Expression in Synthetic Vesicles

In cell-free gene expression, low input DNA concentration severely limits the phenotypic output, which may impair in vitro protein evolution efforts. We address this challenge by developing CADGE, a strategy that is based on clonal isothermal amplification of a linear gene-encoding dsDNA template by the minimal Φ29 replication machinery and...

Expression of a gene-encoded FtsZ-based minimal machinery to drive synthetic cell division

The Christophe Danelon lab is involved in the long-term effort to construct an autonomous minimal cell using a bottom-up approach. Our goal is to achieve self-maintenance, selfreproduction, and evolution of a liposome compartment containing a minimal genome and a cell-free gene expression system. Self-reproduction requires splitting of the...

Genetically encoded phospholipid production for autonomous synthetic cell proliferation

Cells, the building blocks of life, are vastly complex. This complexity confers to every living organism the ability to maintain oneself, reproduce oneself, and evolve. Creating a minimal system from nonliving components that is capable of self-maintenance, self-reproduction, and evolvability, will greatly increase our understanding of life....

Shaping Liposomes by Cell-Free Expressed Bacterial Microtubules

Genetic control over a cytoskeletal network inside lipid vesicles offers a potential route to controlled shape changes and DNA segregation in synthetic cell biology. Bacterial microtubules (bMTs) are protein filaments found in bacteria of the genus Prosthecobacter. They are formed by the tubulins BtubA and BtubB, which polymerize in the...

Biosynthesis of protein filaments for the creation of a minimal cell

Humanity has achieved to decipher the most fundamental mechanics of cellular life. Nevertheless, despite intense efforts there are still considerable gaps in our understanding of cellular processes. Traditionally, biologists investigate life by observation of existing lifeforms. In order to assign functions to biological components, it is common...