Nutrient uptake by protocells: a liposome model system

Over the past decade, several liposome-based models for protocells have been developed. For example, liposome systems composed of polymerase enzymes encapsulated with their substrates have demonstrated that complex compartmentalized reactions can be carried out under conditions in which polymeric products are protected from degradation by hydrolytic enzymes present in the external medium. However, such systems do not have nutrient uptake mechanisms, which would be essential for primitive cells lacking the highly evolved nutrient transport processes present in all contemporary cells. In this report, we explore passive diffusion of solutes across lipid bilayers as one possible uptake mechanism. We have established conditions under which ionic substrates as large as ATP can permeate bilayers at rates capable of supplying an encapsulated template-dependent RNA polymerase. Furthermore, while allowing the permeation of monomer substrates such as ATP, bilayer vesicles selectively retained polymerization products as small as dimers and as large as a transfer RNA. These observations demonstrate that passive diffusion could be used by the earliest forms of cellular life for transport of important nutrients such as amino acids, phosphate, and phosphorylated organic solutes.