Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm
Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe
BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 31: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems I (Joint Session with DY)
BP 31.3: Vortrag
Dienstag, 8. März 2016, 12:30–12:45, H43
Growth and Division of Active Droplets: A Model for Protocells — David Zwicker1,2, •Rabea Seyboldt1, Christoph A. Weber1, Anthony A. Hyman3, and Frank Jülicher1 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden, Germany — 2School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA — 3Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, 01307 Dresden, Germany
It has been proposed that during the early steps in the origin of life, small droplets could have formed by phase separation from a surrounding complex mixture. These droplets could have provided chemical reaction centers to generate and evolve organic molecules. However, whether these droplets could divide and propagate is unclear. Here we study the dynamics of such droplets by combining the physics of phase separation with chemical reactions that are maintained away from thermodynamic equilibrium by an external supply of energy. Outside the droplets, these reactions turn precursors into droplet material, which then gets incorporated into droplets, where it is eventually converted into a waste product that leaves the droplet. Surprisingly, our theoretical study shows that the resulting chemically driven fluxes can lead to shape instabilities that trigger division of droplets into two smaller daughters, which can then grow again. Therefore, chemically active droplets can exhibit cycles of growth and division that resemble the proliferation of living cells. Dividing active droplets could serve as a model for prebiotic protocells, where chemical reactions in the droplet play the role of a prebiotic metabolism.