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Updated: Sep 6, 2025

Detection and Quantification of Tunneling Nanotubes Using 3D Volume View Images
Published on: August 31, 2022
Transport among protocells via tunneling nanotubes
Ingrid Jin Schanke1, Lin Xue1, Karolina Spustova1
1Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, 0318 Oslo, Norway. irep@uio.no.
Abstract:
We employ model protocell networks for evaluation of molecular transport through lipid nanotubes as potential means of communication among primitive cells on the early Earth. Network formation is initiated by deposition of lipid reservoirs onto a SiO2 surface in an aqueous environment. These reservoirs autonomously develop into surface-adhered protocells interconnected via lipid nanotubes while encapsulating solutes from the ambient buffer. We observe the uptake of DNA and RNA, and their diffusive transport between the lipid compartments via the interconnecting nanotubes. By means of an analytical model we determine key physical parameters affecting the transport, such as nanotube diameter and compartment size. We conclude that nanotube-mediated transport could have been a possible pathway of communication between primitive cells on the early Earth, circumventing the necessity for crossing the membrane barrier. We suggest this transport as a feasible means of RNA and DNA exchange under primitive prebiotic conditions, possibly facilitating early replication.
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