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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

In Vitro Reconstitution of Self-Organizing Protein Patterns on Supported Lipid Bilayers
Published on: July 28, 2018
Life cycle of a minimal protocell--a dissipative particle dynamics study
Harold Fellermann1, Steen Rasmussen, Hans-Joachim Ziock
1Self-Organizing Systems, EES-6 MS-D462, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA. harold.fellermann@upf.edu
Abstract:
Cross-reactions and other systematic difficulties generated by the coupling of functional chemical subsystems pose the largest challenge for assembling a viable protocell in the laboratory. Our current work seeks to identify and clarify such key issues as we represent and analyze in simulation a full implementation of a minimal protocell. Using a 3D dissipative particle dynamics simulation method, we are able to address the coupled diffusion, self-assembly, and chemical reaction processes required to model a full life cycle of a protocell composed of coupled genetic, metabolic, and container subsystems. Utilizing this minimal structural and functional representation of the constituent molecules, their interactions, and their reactions, we identify and explore the nature of the many linked processes for the full protocellular system. Obviously the simplicity of this simulation method combined with the inherent system complexity prevents us from expecting quantitative simulation predictions from these investigations. However, we report important findings on systemic processes, some previously predicted and some newly discovered, as we couple the protocellular self-assembly processes and chemical reactions.
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