Spatiotemporal control of signal-driven enzymatic reaction in artificial cell-like polymersomes

Living cells can spatiotemporally control biochemical reactions to dynamically assemble membraneless organelles and remodel cytoskeleton. Herein, we present a microfluidic approach to prepare semi-permeable polymersomes comprising of amphiphilic triblock copolymer to achieve external signal-driven complex coacervation as well as biophysical reconstitution of cytoskeleton within the polymersomes. We also show that the microfluidic synthesis of polymersomes enables precise control over size, efficient encapsulation of enzymes as well as regulation of substrates without the use of biopores. Moreover, we demonstrate that the resulting triblock copolymer-based membrane in polymersomes is size-selective, allowing phosphoenol pyruvate to readily diffuse through the membrane and induce enzymatic reaction and successive coacervation or actin polymerization in the presence of pyruvate kinase and adenosine diphosphate inside the polymersomes. We envision that the Pluronic-based polymersomes presented in this work will shed light in the design of in vitro enzymatic reactions in artificial cell-like vesicles. Researchers have been trying to mimick the cellular spatiotemporal control in normal cells with different approaches. Here, the authors present semi-permeable polymersomes comprising of amphiphilic triblock copolymers to achieve external signal-driven complex coacervation and biophysical reconstitution of cytoskeleton.

Automated summary

In this study, a microfluidic approach was used to prepare semi-permeable polymersomes and achieve external signal-driven complex coacervation and biophysical reconstitution. The synthesis of polymersomes through microfluidics enables precise control over size, efficient encapsulation of enzymes, and regulation of substrates. The resulting polymersomes showed size-selectivity and allowed for enzymatic reactions and coacervation or actin polymerization.