Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Genesis - In The Beginning pp 289–303Cite as

Constructive Approaches for the Origin of Life

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 22))

Abstract

Life is composed of a vast number of molecules. A central question is how these nonliving molecules organized into an integrated system regarded as living. A straightforward method that addresses this question is the “constructive approach,” which is an approach to construct living systems or subsystems in vitro using identified materials. Here, we review studies that constructed several subsystems or systems in the cell including replication of genetic information, translation, and cell membranes. The achievements and limitations of these studies have also been discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bangham AD, Horne RW (1964) Negative staining of phospholipids and their structural modification by surface-active agents as observed in the electron microscope. J Mol Biol 8:660–668

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Biebricher CK, Eigen M, Luce R (1986) Template-free RNA synthesis by Q beta replicase. Nature 321(6065):89–91

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Breaker RR, Joyce GF (1994) Emergence of a replicating species from an in vitro RNA evolution reaction. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91(13):6093–6097

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chakrabarti AC, Breaker RR, Joyce GF, Deamer DW (1994) Production of RNA by a polymerase protein encapsulated within phospholipid vesicles. J Mol Evol 39(6):555–559

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen IA, Szostak JW (2004) Membrane growth can generate a transmembrane pH gradient in fatty acid vesicles. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101(21):7965–7970

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Forster AC, Church GM (2006) Towards synthesis of a minimal cell. Mol Syst Biol 2:45

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Forster AC, Church GM (2007) Synthetic biology projects in vitro. Genome Res 17(1):1–6

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Funnell BE, Baker TA, Kornberg A (1986) Complete enzymatic replication of plasmids containing the origin of the Escherichia coli chromosome. J Biol Chem 261(12):5616–5624

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ghadessy FJ, Ong JL, Holliger P (2001) Directed evolution of polymerase function by compartmentalized self-replication. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98(8):4552–4557

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guatelli JC, Whitfield KM, Kwoh DY, Barringer KJ, Richman DD, Gingeras TR (1990) Isothermal, in vitro amplification of nucleic acids by a multienzyme reaction modeled after retroviral replication. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 87(5):1874–1878

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ichihashi N, Matsuura T, Kita H, Hosoda K, Sunami T, Tsukada K, Yomo T (2008) Importance of translation-replication balance for efficient replication by the self-encoded replicase. Chembiochem 9(18):3023–3028

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ishikawa K, Sato K, Shima Y, Urabe I, Yomo T (2004) Expression of a cascading genetic network within liposomes. FEBS Lett 576(3):387–390

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kaneko K (2006) Life: an introduction to complex systems biology. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Kazuta Y, Adachi J, Matsuura T, Ono N, Mori H, Yomo T (2008) Comprehensive analysis of the effects of Escherichia coli ORFs on protein translation reaction. Mol Cell Proteomics 7(8):1530–1540

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kita H, Matsuura T, Sunami T, Hosoda K, Ichihashi N, Tsukada K, Urabe I, Yomo T (2008) Replication of genetic information with self-encoded replicase in liposomes. Chembiochem 9(15):2403–2410

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kuruma Y, Stano P, Ueda T, Luisi PL (2009) A synthetic biology approach to the construction of membrane proteins in semi-synthetic minimal cells. Biochim Biophys Acta 1788(2):567–574

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln TA, Joyce GF (2009) Self-sustained replication of an RNA enzyme. Science 323(5918):1229–1232

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu AP, Fletcher DA (2009) Biology under construction: in vitro reconstitution of cellular function. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 10(9):644–650

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Luisi PL, Ferri F, Stano P (2006) Approaches to semi-synthetic minimal cells: a review. Naturwissenschaften 93(1):1–13

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mansy SS, Schrum JP, Krishnamurthy M, Tobe S, Treco DA, Szostak JW (2008) Template-directed synthesis of a genetic polymer in a model protocell. Nature 454(7200):122–125

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Matsuura T, Kazuta Y, Aita T, Adachi J, Yomo T (2009) Quantifying epistatic interactions among the components constituting the protein translation system. Mol Syst Biol 5:297

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mills DR, Peterson RL, Spiegelman S (1967) An extracellular Darwinian experiment with a self-duplicating nucleic acid molecule. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 58(1):217–224

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Noireaux V, Libchaber A (2004) A vesicle bioreactor as a step toward an artificial cell assembly. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101(51):17669–17674

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nomura SM, Tsumoto K, Hamada T, Akiyoshi K, Nakatani Y, Yoshikawa K (2003) Gene expression within cell-sized lipid vesicles. Chembiochem 4(11):1172–1175

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oberholzer T, Albrizio M, Luisi PL (1995a) Polymerase chain reaction in liposomes. Chem Biol 2(10):677–682

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oberholzer T, Wick R, Luisi PL, Biebricher CK (1995b) Enzymatic RNA replication in self-reproducing vesicles: an approach to a minimal cell. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 207(1):250–257

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oberholzer T, Nierhaus KH, Luisi PL (1999) Protein expression in liposomes. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 261(2):238–241

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Osawa M, Anderson DE, Erickson HP (2008) Reconstitution of contractile FtsZ rings in liposomes. Science 320(5877):792–794

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pohorille A, Deamer D (2002) Artificial cells: prospects for biotechnology. Trends Biotechnol 20(3):123–128

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saiki RK, Scharf S, Faloona F, Mullis KB, Horn GT, Erlich HA, Arnheim N (1985) Enzymatic amplification of beta-globin genomic sequences and restriction site analysis for diagnosis of sickle cell anemia. Science 230(4732):1350–1354

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shimizu Y, Inoue A, Tomari Y, Suzuki T, Yokogawa T, Nishikawa K, Ueda T (2001) Cell-free translation reconstituted with purified components. Nat Biotechnol 19(8):751–755

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shimizu Y, Kuruma Y, Ying BW, Umekage S, Ueda T (2006) Cell-free translation systems for protein engineering. FEBS J 273(18):4133–4140

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shohda K, Sugawara T (2006) DNA polymerization on the inner surface of a giant liposome for synthesizing an artificial cell model. Soft Matter 2(5):402–408

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sunami T, Hosoda K, Suzuki H, Matsuura T, Yomo T (2010) Cellular compartment model for exploring the effect of the lipidic membrane on the kinetics of encapsulated biochemical reactions. Langmuir (in press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Swartz J (2001) A PURE approach to constructive biology. Nat Biotechnol 19(8):732–733

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Szostak JW, Bartel DP, Luisi PL (2001) Synthesizing life. Nature 409(6818):387–390

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Takakura K, Toyota T, Sugawara T (2003) A novel system of self-reproducing giant vesicles. J Am Chem Soc 125(27):8134–8140

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Urabe H, Ichihashi N, Matsuura T, Hosoda K, Kazuta Y, Kita H, Yomo T (2010) Compartmentalization in a water-in-oil emulsion repressed the spontaneous amplification of RNA by Qβ replicase. Biochemistry 49(9):1809–1813

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Walde P, Goto A, Monnard PA, Wessicken M, Luisi PL (1994a) Oparins reactions revisited – enzymatic-synthesis of poly(adenylic acid) in micelles and self-reproducing vesicles. J Am Chem Soc 116(17):7541–7547

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Walde P, Wick R, Fresta M, Mangone A, Luisi PL (1994b) Autopoietic self-reproduction of fatty acid vesicles. J Am Chem Soc 116:11649–11654

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Young R, Bremer H (1976) Polypeptide-chain-elongation rate in Escherichia coli B/r as a function of growth rate. Biochem J 160(2):185–194

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yu W, Sato K, Wakabayashi M, Nakaishi T, Ko-Mitamura EP, Shima Y, Urabe I, Yomo T (2001) Synthesis of functional protein in liposome. J Biosci Bioeng 92(6):590–593

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu TF, Szostak JW (2009) Coupled growth and division of model protocell membranes. J Am Chem Soc 131(15):5705–5713

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ERATO Project, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Norikazu Ichihashi, Tomoaki Matsuura, Hiroshi Kita, Takeshi Sunami, Hiroaki Suzuki & Tetsuya Yomo

  2. Department of Bioinformatic Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Hiroaki Suzuki & Tetsuya Yomo

  3. Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Tetsuya Yomo

Authors
  1. Norikazu Ichihashi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tomoaki Matsuura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hiroshi Kita
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Takeshi Sunami
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Hiroaki Suzuki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Tetsuya Yomo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Norikazu Ichihashi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Ichihashi, N., Matsuura, T., Kita, H., Sunami, T., Suzuki, H., Yomo, T. (2012). Constructive Approaches for the Origin of Life. In: Seckbach, J. (eds) Genesis - In The Beginning. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2941-4_17

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation