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Experimental Evidences Suggest High Between-Vesicle Diversity of Artificial Vesicle Populations: Results, Models and Implications

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Computational Intelligence Methods for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics (CIBB 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNBI,volume 10834))

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Abstract

In the past years, artificial cellular models for origins-of-life research and synthetic biology have been extensively studied. At this aim, solute-filled lipid vesicles (liposomes) are widely used. Several evidences have been collected about the capture of water-soluble chemicals, the mechanism of vesicle self-reproduction, and the course of (bio)chemical reactions in the vesicle lumen. Among the several fascinating questions which emerged from these studies, here we focus on a peculiar feature, namely, the fact that a spontaneous heterogeneity of vesicle structure often emerges. In other words, vesicle populations created in the laboratory by classical batch methods include very ‘diverse’ vesicles with respect to size, morphology, and – importantly – solute content. The consequences of this between-vesicle diversity are shortly discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Ideally, one would like to have a single lipid monolayer deposited over a large surface so that all parts of the film would experience the same conditions. This corresponds, in most cases, to work well below the \(\mu \)M lipid concentration range, with consequent vesicle losses and other impractical complications. Thus, in the most common experimental conditions the film is rarely so perfect and different regions of the film will experience different micro-environments. Actually, realistic laboratory conditions might affect the measured heterogeneity of vesicle formation paths.

  2. 2.

    Note that this loss does not refer to the volume loss which follows from the vesicle size reduction, but it is an authentic concentration reduction due to the reduction of the average number per unit of volume.

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Acknowledgments

Collaboration among the authors has been fostered by the European COST Action CM1304 Emergence and Evolution of Complex Chemical Systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies (DiSTeBA), University of Salento, Ecotekne, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    Pasquale Stano

  2. Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Derna 1, 56126, Pisa, Italy

    Roberto Marangoni

  3. CNR – Institute of Biophysics, Via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Roberto Marangoni

  4. Department of Chemistry, University of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Fabio Mavelli

Authors
  1. Pasquale Stano
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Correspondence to Pasquale Stano .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Massimo Bartoletti

  2. University of Genova, Genoa, Italy

    Annalisa Barla

  3. University of Stirling, Stirling, UK

    Andrea Bracciali

  4. Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Gunnar W. Klau

  5. Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA

    Leif Peterson

  6. University of Udine, Udine, Italy

    Alberto Policriti

  7. University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

    Roberto Tagliaferri

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Stano, P., Marangoni, R., Mavelli, F. (2019). Experimental Evidences Suggest High Between-Vesicle Diversity of Artificial Vesicle Populations: Results, Models and Implications. In: Bartoletti, M., et al. Computational Intelligence Methods for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics. CIBB 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10834. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14160-8_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14160-8_17

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