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Membrane Assembly: Spontaneous Structuration in Coacervate‐Based Protocells by Polyoxometalate‐Mediated Membrane Assembly (Small 9/2014)
Author(s) -
Williams David S.,
Patil Avinash J.,
Mann Stephen
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201470051
Subject(s) - coacervate , protocell , vesicle , membrane , polyelectrolyte , nanotechnology , biophysics , nanodisc , chemistry , surface modification , self assembly , materials science , membrane protein , biochemistry , biology , polymer , organic chemistry
Molecularly crowded, polyelectrolyte/ribonucleotide‐enriched coacervate droplets are transformed into membrane‐bounded subdivided vesicles using a polyoxometalatemediated surface‐templating procedur e. As S. Mann and co‐workers report on page 1830, this transition results in reconstruction of the coacervate micro‐droplets into novel, three‐tiered micro‐compartments containing organic dyes, ssDNA, magnetic nanoparticles or enzymes. The encapsulated proteins are inaccessible to proteases in the external medium, and can be exploited for the spatial localization and coupling of enzyme cascade reactions generated within single or between multiple populations of the coacervate vesicles.