Journal
CHEMBIOCHEM
Volume 9, Issue 15, Pages 2403-2410Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/cbic.200800360
Keywords
artificial cells; in vitro translation; liposomes; Q beta replicase; RNA
Funding
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In all living systems, the genome is replicated by proteins that are encoded within the genome itself. This universal reaction is essential to allow the system to evolve. Here, we have constructed a simplified system involving encapsulated macromolecules termed a self-encoding system, in which the genetic information is replicated by self-encoded replicase in liposomes. That is the universal reaction was reconstituted within a microcompartment bound by a lipid bilayer. The system was assembled by using one template RNA sequence as the information molecule and an in vitro translation system reconstituted from purified translation factors as the machinery for decoding the information. In this system, the catalytic subunit of Q beta replicase is synthesized from the template RNA that encodes the protein. The replicase then replicates the template RNA that was used for its production. Thus in-liposome self-encoding system is one of the simplest such systems available; it consists of only 144 gene products, while the information and the function for its replication are encoded on different molecules and are compartmentalized into the microenvironment for evolvability.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available