Schematic overview of the experimental workflow and key findings (IMAGE)
Caption
Membrane compartments (vesicles) were prepared from two phospholipids with distinct acyl-chain structures, each encapsulating a different DNA species. Upon repeated freeze–thaw (F/T) cycles, the vesicles enlarged in size, and clear compositional biases toward PLPC—the lipid species with higher growth propensity—as well as toward the DNA molecules originally encapsulated within PLPC vesicles were detected. These results demonstrate that prebiotic environmental fluctuations by F/T cycling can drive processes of growth, selection, and inheritance in primitive membrane compartments.
Credit
Tatsuya Shinoda & Natsumi Noda, ELSI
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License
CC BY-NC-ND