Non-equilibrium behaviour in coacervate-based protocells under electric-field-induced excitation.

ABSTRACT: Although numerous strategies are now available to generate rudimentary forms of synthetic cell-like entities, minimal progress has been made in the sustained excitation of artificial protocells under non-equilibrium conditions. Here we demonstrate that the electric field energization of coacervate microdroplets comprising polylysine and short single strands of DNA generates membrane-free protocells with complex, dynamical behaviours. By confining the droplets within a microfluidic channel and applying a range of electric field strengths, we produce protocells that exhibit repetitive cycles of vacuolarization, dynamical fluctuations in size and shape, chaotic growth and fusion, spontaneous ejection and sequestration of matter, directional capture of solute molecules, and pulsed enhancement

SUBMITTER: Yin Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4756681 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature