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Spatial Positioning and Chemical Coupling in Coacervate‐in‐Proteinosome Protocells
Author(s) -
Booth Richard,
Qiao Yan,
Li Mei,
Mann Stephen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201903756
Subject(s) - protocell , coacervate , membrane , biophysics , chemistry , nucleation , artificial cell , nanotechnology , chemical physics , materials science , biology , chromatography , biochemistry , organic chemistry
The integration of molecularly crowded microenvironments into membrane‐enclosed protocell models represents a step towards more realistic representations of cellular structure and organization. Herein, the membrane diffusion‐mediated nucleation of either negatively or positively charged coacervate microdroplets within the aqueous lumen of individual proteinosomes is used to prepare nested hybrid protocells with spatially organized and chemically coupled enzyme activities. The location and reconfiguration of the entrapped droplets are regulated by tuning the electrostatic interactions between the encapsulated coacervate and surrounding negatively charged proteinosome membrane. As a consequence, alternative modes of a cascade reaction involving membrane‐ and coacervate‐segregated enzymes can be implemented within the coacervate‐in‐proteinosome protocells.