Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Sun, Shiyong
• Li, Mei
• Dong, Faqin
• Wang, Shengjie
• Tian, Liangfei
• Mann, Stephen

Titel

Chemical Signaling and Functional Activation in Colloidosome-Based Protocells

Ist Teil von

• Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany), 2016-04, Vol.12 (14), p.1920-1927

Ort / Verlag

Germany: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

Wiley Online Library All Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• An aqueous‐based microcompartmentalized model involving the integration of partially hydrophobic Fe(III)‐rich montmorillonite (FeM) clay particles as structural and catalytic building blocks for colloidosome membrane assembly, self‐directed membrane remodeling, and signal‐induced protocell communication is described. The clay colloidosomes exhibit size‐ and charge‐selective permeability, and show dual catalytic functions involving spatially confined enzyme‐mediated dephosphorylation and peroxidase‐like membrane activity. The latter is used for the colloidosome‐mediated synthesis and assembly of a temperature‐responsive poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide)(PNIPAM)/clay‐integrated hybrid membrane. In situ PNIPAM elaboration of the membrane is coupled to a glucose oxidase (GOx)‐mediated signaling pathway to establish a primitive model of chemical communication and functional activation within a synthetic “protocell community” comprising a mixed population of GOx‐containing silica colloidosomes and alkaline phosphatase (ALP)‐containing FeM‐clay colloidosomes. Triggering the enzyme reaction in the silica colloidosomes gives a hydrogen peroxide signal that induces polymer wall formation in a coexistent population of the FeM‐clay colloidosomes, which in turn generates self‐regulated membrane‐gated ALP‐activity within the clay microcompartments. The emergence of new functionalities in inorganic colloidosomes via chemical communication between different protocell populations provides a first step toward the realization of interacting communities of synthetic functional microcompartments. Cross‐linked water‐in‐water iron‐enriched clay colloidosomes are prepared and used to produce inorganic protocells enveloped in a temperature‐responsive polymer wall. Wall formation in the clay colloidosomes (green) can be controlled by a hydrogen peroxide signal originating from a population of enzyme‐containing silica colloidosomes (red), providing a chemical communication pathway in a primitive synthetic protocell community.