Positive roles of compartmentalization in internal reactions.

Positive roles of compartmentalization in internal reactions.
Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2014 Jul 14;22C:12-17
Authors: Ichihashi N, Yomo T
Abstract
Recently, many researchers have attempted to construct artificial cell models using a bottom-up approach in which various biochemical reactions that involve a defined set of molecules are reconstructed in cell-like compartments, such as liposomes and water-in-oil droplets. In many of these studies, the cell-like compartments have acted only as containers for the encapsulated biochemical reactions, whereas other studies have indicated that compartmentalization improves the rates and yields of these reactions. Here, we introduce two ways in which compartmentalization can improve internal reactions: the isolation effect and the condensation effect. These positive effects of compartmentalization might have played an important role in the genesis of the first primitive cell on early Earth.
PMID: 25032508 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Current Opinion in Chemical Biology - July 14, 2014 Category: Biochemistry Authors: Ichihashi N, Yomo T Tags: Curr Opin Chem Biol Source Type: research