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Biologists create the most lifelike artificial cells yet
No biologist would mistake the microscopic "cells" that chemical biologist Neal Devaraj and colleagues are whipping up at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), for the real thing. Instead of the lipid membrane that swaddles our cells, these cell mimics wear a coat of plastic—polymerized acrylate. And although they harbor a nucleuslike compartment containing DNA, it lacks a membrane like a real cell's nucleus, and its main ingredients are minerals found in clay.
Yet these mock cells are cutting-edge, "the closest anyone has come to building an actual functioning synthetic eukaryotic cell," says synthetic biologist Kate Adamala of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who was not part of the work. Like real cells, the spheres can send protein signals to their neighbors, triggering communal behavior. And as Devaraj and his team revealed in a preprint recently posted on the bioRxiv site, the "nucleus" talks to the rest of the cell, releasing RNA that sparks the synthesis of proteins. The artificial nuclei can even respond to signals from other cell mimics. "This may be the most important paper in synthetic biology this year," Adamala says.
Let's see some cell division.
Communication and quorum sensing in non-living mimics of eukaryotic cells
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Sunday December 02 2018, @01:00AM (2 children)
Cell mimics, soon able to divide, tough, and able live frozen for years in... WE ARE WORKING ON "THE THING"!!!
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 02 2018, @01:08AM (1 child)
And since it is artificial, it can have numerous genders: "THE MILLENNIAL THING"!!!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 02 2018, @01:21AM
How dare you call me plastic or artificial? I identify as polymer-based.