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| Natura: | Preprint |
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2024
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| Accesso online: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04654 |
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| _version_ | 1866916238921302016 |
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| author | Thomsen, Kristoffer R. Kolchinsky, Artemy Rasmussen, Steen |
| author_facet | Thomsen, Kristoffer R. Kolchinsky, Artemy Rasmussen, Steen |
| contents | Critical experimental design issues connecting energy transduction and inheritable information within a protocell are explored and elucidated. The protocell design utilizes a photo-driven energy transducer (a ruthenium complex) to turn resource molecules into building blocks, in a manner that is modulated by a combinatorial DNA-based co-factor. This co-factor molecule serves as part of an electron relay for the energy transduction mechanism, where the charge-transport rates depend on the sequence that contains an oxo-guanine. The co-factor also acts as a store of inheritable information due to its ability to replicate non-enzymatically through template-directed ligation. Together, the energy transducer and the co-factor act as a metabolic catalyst that produces co-factor DNA building blocks as well as fatty acids (from picolinium ester and modified DNA oligomers), where the fatty acids self-assemble into vesicles on which exterior surface both the co-factor (DNA) and the energy transducer are anchored with hydrophobic tails. Here we use simulations to study how the co-factor sequence determines its fitness as reflected by charge transfer and replication rates. To estimate the impact on the protocell, we compare these rates with previously measured metabolic rates from a similar system where the charge transfer is directly between the ruthenium complex and the oxo-guanine (without DNA replication and charge transport). Replication and charge transport turn out to have different and often opposing sequence requirements. Functional information of the co-factor molecules is used to probe the feasibility of randomly picking co-factor sequences from a limited population of co-factors molecules, where a good co-factor can enhance both metabolic biomass production and its own replication rate. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_04654 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Metabolism, information, and viability in a simulated physically-plausible protocell Thomsen, Kristoffer R. Kolchinsky, Artemy Rasmussen, Steen Biological Physics Molecular Networks Critical experimental design issues connecting energy transduction and inheritable information within a protocell are explored and elucidated. The protocell design utilizes a photo-driven energy transducer (a ruthenium complex) to turn resource molecules into building blocks, in a manner that is modulated by a combinatorial DNA-based co-factor. This co-factor molecule serves as part of an electron relay for the energy transduction mechanism, where the charge-transport rates depend on the sequence that contains an oxo-guanine. The co-factor also acts as a store of inheritable information due to its ability to replicate non-enzymatically through template-directed ligation. Together, the energy transducer and the co-factor act as a metabolic catalyst that produces co-factor DNA building blocks as well as fatty acids (from picolinium ester and modified DNA oligomers), where the fatty acids self-assemble into vesicles on which exterior surface both the co-factor (DNA) and the energy transducer are anchored with hydrophobic tails. Here we use simulations to study how the co-factor sequence determines its fitness as reflected by charge transfer and replication rates. To estimate the impact on the protocell, we compare these rates with previously measured metabolic rates from a similar system where the charge transfer is directly between the ruthenium complex and the oxo-guanine (without DNA replication and charge transport). Replication and charge transport turn out to have different and often opposing sequence requirements. Functional information of the co-factor molecules is used to probe the feasibility of randomly picking co-factor sequences from a limited population of co-factors molecules, where a good co-factor can enhance both metabolic biomass production and its own replication rate. |
| title | Metabolism, information, and viability in a simulated physically-plausible protocell |
| topic | Biological Physics Molecular Networks |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04654 |