Replicating Vesicles: What must be done?

• Develop system with ion and substrate permeability and stability to Mg++
• Understand mechanism of growth and division
• Achieve division with less loss of contents
• Prove 'steady state' replication
  
  

What are the key components of our cell?

• A self replicating compartment boundary - ours will be a membrane made of simple fatty acids
  
• A self-replicating genome for the transmission of heritable information - ours will be made of RNA, so our goal is to evolve and RNA molecule that is an RNA polymerase
• Some mechanism must allow changes in the genome to confer a selective advantage on the cell as a whole. This linking function would be a lipid-synthesizing ribozyme, a structural RNA, or a direct effect of RNA replication on vesicle growth

What lipids to use?

Prebiotic:	Modern:	Compromise:
short chain saturated fatty acids? simple isoprenoids?	phospholiipids sterols	oleic acid

Vesicle Growth: Slow and Steady..

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Vesicle Growth: Mechanistic Questions

• Are individual molecules or whole micelles incorporated?
• Does lateral pressure in the outer leaflet increase?
• Could this lead to vesicle division?
• Do transient defects affect membrane permeability?

What about division?