Journal Article

Growth and division of active droplets provides a model for protocells

Weber, Christoph A., Jülicher, Frank, Seyboldt, Rabea, Hyman, Anthony A., Zwicker, David

2017

Overview

It has been proposed that during the early steps in the origin of life, small droplets could have formed via the segregation of molecules from complex mixtures by phase separation. These droplets could have provided chemical reaction centres. However, whether these droplets could divide and propagate is unclear. Here we examine the behaviour of droplets in systems that are maintained away from thermodynamic equilibrium by an external supply of energy. In these systems, droplets grow by the addition of droplet material generated by chemical reactions. Surprisingly, we find that chemically driven droplet growth can lead to shape instabilities that trigger the division of droplets into two smaller daughters. Therefore, chemically active droplets can exhibit cycles of growth and division that resemble the proliferation of living cells. Dividing active droplets could serve as a model for prebiotic protocells, where chemical reactions in the droplet play the role of a prebiotic metabolism. Droplets are an appealing picture for protocells in origin-of-life studies, but it’s unclear how they would have propagated by growth and division. Theory suggests that chemically active droplets spontaneously split into equal daughter droplets.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 639/766/530 / 639/766/747 / Astrobiology / Atomic / Biochemistry / Biophysics / Cells (biology) / Chemical reactions / Classical and Continuum Physics / Complex Systems / Condensed Matter Physics / Division / Droplets / Mathematical and Computational Physics / Metabolism / Molecular / Optical and Plasma Physics / Origins / Physics / Segregations / Theoretical / Thermodynamic equilibrium